Ms. Maja Koene was born in Zurich, Switzerland, She travelled through many southern countries for more than a decade as a photo – journalist, witnessing poverty and misery. Maja was impressed by the work of Ekta Parishad and its search for nonviolent solutions to address problems. She returned to India and realised her dreams in the form of CESCI at Madurai in 1994. She suffered from cancer and passed away in 1999 in Zurich.

Many people helped her to realize this vision including K. Radhakrishna Menon, Dr. S.N. Subba Rao, Mr Venugopal, Mr. K.M. Natarajan, Dr. S. Jeyapragasam, and Mr. V.C. Nadarajan.