The Lady Fatemah Charitable Trust was formed in 1997 when the founder, Amirali G. Karim, who had a history of charitable activity in his native country, Kenya realised the vision of a different way of serving humanity.

At the core of his vision was a desire to ensure that charities were accountable and their work was sustainable, empowering and replicable. He was strongly against fostering dependency and felt that however the intervention takes place whether through education, healthcare or microfinance, beneficiaries should go from being a net recipient of charity to a net donor of charity.