However, he isn’t the only one who reacts in this way.

Mr Hardless, 85, and his wife Val founded the Kiama Indian Student Support (K.I.S.S) Trust charity 20 years ago, a personal sponsorship program.

‘‘We take people to these villages, and they are moved to tears,’’ he said.

‘‘They actually break down and cry, because they understand for the first time in their life the meaning of the word nothing.

‘‘There’s no floor, roof, walls, nowhere to live and nothing to eat.

‘‘No bathroom, water or toilet.

‘‘Your father doesn’t work and could be an alcoholic, or some work and drink it all.

‘‘You can’t find work, the government gives you $2 a day to feed your family.’’

K.I.S.S supports another charity they founded two decades ago in India, the We Care Trust.

Mrs Hardless, 71, said this was to enable children who have nothing to gain the most important thing in life for them – an education and welfare support.

‘‘We started with five children from a leprosy colony, and we now have 160 students, all receiving education and living in the safety of their own home, no matter how humble,’’ she said.

‘‘We find growing up in a family unit, no matter how poor the circumstances allows them to grow up with family values, which they don’t get in orphanages.

‘‘Some have AIDS, others are blind or deaf.

‘‘Probably 50 per cent have alcoholic fathers.’’

The couple, who now reside in Kanahooka after living in Kiama, visit India almost annually, including  June to August this year.

Mr Hardless said they sought to break the pattern of families with generations of illiteracy.

‘‘No one in their family from the word dot has known their ABC’s,’’ he said.

‘‘There’s a huge generation gap in education.

‘‘Education is free in India, but the free education can be worthless, if you have ignorant parents who want you to beg, or you don’t want to go, and don’t have a pair of pants to wear, or the books.’’

The charity also offers a welfare program to students and families, giving free advice on hygiene, housing problems, family problems, alcohol and drug-related matters.

A growing number of tuition centres are being built to provide a safe space where students can go after school to study.

‘‘We started doing this because I felt that having been born, raised and educated in India, and having migrated overseas to England, I found that far from being behind, I was ahead,’’ Mr Hardless, who left India aged 32, said.

‘‘I had received such a start in terms of health, intelligence and education, that I was able to grow to be an important enough man for Australia to say, ‘will you please come to Australia?’

‘‘When I retired, I felt I had to put something back in the pot.’’

To donate, phone 0414 375 059, or email kissoz@hotmail.com.