Sudarshan Abrol obituary

My friend Sudarshan Abrol, who has died aged 88, set up the UK Asian Women’s Centre in Handsworth, Birmingham, and ran it for more than three decades. Under her leadership the centre was a sanctuary, supporting women in crisis, helping them into employment and providing a space where, often with their children, they could learn English and other skills.

She never faltered in her commitment, and over the years applied for mountains of grants and funds to provide the support that vulnerable women needed. She also initiated a number of social enterprise programmes, from tiffin services to sewing circles, and in 1988 she was made MBE.

Sudarshan was born in what was then British India and, after experiencing partition at the age of nine, grew up in the city of Jalandhar in Punjab state. After her secondary schooling she gained a degree in education at the Montgomery Guru Nanak College of Education in Jalandhar before going on to teach in various schools in the city and later becoming a schools inspector covering surrounding villages.

She met Avtar Singh Abrol in India in 1960 and joined him in 1963 in the UK, where they married in Birmingham. Their daughter, Gurinder, developed cerebral palsy, and it was her condition that inspired Sudarshan to move into teaching in special schools in Birmingham, including at Fox Hollies school, the Dame Ellen Pinsent school and Victoria school, before she was made headteacher of Mayfield special school in Handsworth.

Sudarshan retired from teaching in 1984, and immediately used her time to establish the UK Asian Women’s Centre, working as its head for the next 30 years or so on a voluntary basis. Over the years she ran the centre with a small circle of friends but also, at times, almost single-handedly, showing enormous energy and commitment.

I’ve never known someone who gave so much of themselves to others. Her marriage to Avtar ended in divorce. She is survived by Gurinder and a grandson, Arun.