Maria Gislen, an energetic influential woman from Sweden, came to India with her husband Mikael in 1993. Having it in her heart to help the underprivileged, she started working as a social worker for a British organisation, whose aim is to support the Anglo-Indian community. The Anglo-Indian community has evolved from children of mixed marriages between the Europeans and Indians **, but being a minority community in India many have emigrated to Australia, Canada, Britain A qualified teacher, Maria started to help at St Georges Anglo-Indian School and orphanage. It was there that she came across children starting class 1 (age 5/6) without any pre-schooling, who found it very difficult to cope compared to some of the children from better homes who had 2-3 years pre-school experience. With a student teacher ratio of approximately 1:60, there is no provision for special needs and it is impossible to see, meet and help every child. In order to give these underprivileged children a head start in life, Maria started the Little Lambs Nursery School in 1999.

The school started as a pre-school for 3-5 year olds with only 8 children, but grew steadily during the first six years, comprising of Nursery and Primary school. All this time the school operated in rented buildings, which were too small and not very suitable for a primary school. In 2005 the school had to close down, due to Government legislation on un-safe school buildings. Thanks to fundraising done in Sweden, Ireland and UK, the trust was able to buy land and build a big, beautiful school during 2005-2006. The new building was inaugurated in September 2006. Today the school caters to 160 children, but also offers help to children to continue their education in other Secondary schools. Some children (maximum 40%) come from homes that are little better off, those who can afford higher fees help sponsor the lesser privileged children. Little Lambs do follow the Indian curriculum, but has smaller classes and an aim to attend to every child. All teaching is done in English except one lesson a day, which is in Tamil.

Little Lambs School is more than a school. It is a family of 160 children and 17 Indian  teachers or helpers at the school. Volunteers from various countries play also an important part at the school. They all help to create a very happy atmosphere for the under privileged children in Chennai.