Shahla Ettefagh and Patrick Riley have committed their lives to assisting underprivileged children in India. They gave up their careers in USA and permanently relocated to India in 2002 to manage Mother Miracle’s Programs.

Shahla Ettefagh has a master’s degree in Architecture and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Psychology with an emphasis in child development. In 1984, she started a successful commercial interior art design firm, as well as an adult community art school, in San Francisco, California, USA. During repeated visits to India since 1995, Shahla was heartbroken after witnessing the desperation of Indian children in slum areas.

Her life was not the same thereafter, and she became inspired to help children in India. Seven years later, she decided to give up her career and planned to permanently relocate to India. In 2002, Shahla closed her business and sold her house along with all of her belongings, in order to provide Mother Miracle’s Trust startup capital.

Patrick Riley has owned and operated two successful businesses including a wholesale bread company with retail bakery and an events production company, plus managed and consulted for other corporations. Patrick was active with many community outreach projects in California where he resided. He was the founder of Community In Motion, a non-profit corporation to support the arts and served as a board member for two other non-profit corporations.

During the past ten years his production company had the opportunity to organize events to raise money for non-profit organizations including Special Olympics, International Forgiveness Day, Dogs for the Blind and Hospice, in addition to schools, arts programs and healthcare-related causes. During that same period, Patrick made several long-term visits to India, where his life was profoundly changed by the suffering of the people he encountered. When he met Shahla Ettefagh in 2002, he decided to give up his career and move to India to work with underprivileged children, and with Shahla created Mother Miracle Trust.