ABOUT CECOWOR
Our mission
-
We seek to empower marginalized peoples like lower-castes, gypsies,
tribal people and women by making them aware of their rights and of the
importance of education as a key to long-term change.
- We think that the people should be involved as much as
possible in their own development and liberation, and so gain control
over their own lives.
- We work with everybody regardless of gender, creed, caste,
class or ethnicity.
- We also want to help other small grass roots organizations
with less expertise and are involved in training NGOs, promoting
democracy and developing a strong civil society.
How we started
Our founder, Mr M. Susairaj, is from a poor remote village in Tamil
Nadu but managed to get a university education. He wanted to help
others from his own community and in 1990 he set up CECOWOR with a
group of educated and socially concerned individuals; they worked in
the villages using informal education. In 1992 it was registered as an
organization and since then has extended its activities to include
human rights advocacy, skills training and economic development.
Mr. Susairaj has completed a thesis on
The role of voluntary
organizations in eliciting people's participation
and has worked as a project consultant at the India Social Institute in
New Delhi, assessing NGOs in Tamil Nadu.
The organization
We have a turnover of about £42,000 a year. Our donors include
Action Children Aid
Denmark,
Danish India child
care Denmark,
Just
Trust U.K. and the Tamil Nadu government. We have a good
reputation in the area and recently won a national award for our
performance.
At present there are about 30 full-time staff and 30 part-time staff.
They are encouraged to undergo further training.
