Education:

Education is a key to long term change but children are not able to benefit because:

  • the teaching in state schools is often of very poor quality and the staff are not conscientious
  • parents cannot afford expenses like school fees, books, uniform
  • parents do not appreciate the value of education and prefer to have children working
  • families have to move around to find work

So we have developed centres in the villages to offer:

  • pre-school nurseries so that children can get into the learning habit from an early age
  • remedial education for school dropouts
  • homework clubs
  • adult basic literary classes

We have also

  • opened our own school (the Dream School) to provide quality education in a village
  • opened a boys’ hostel for widows’ children, so that they can continue with their studies

Economic Development:

We help people to move out of poverty by:

  • encouraging self help groups which organize savings schemes and loan applications
  • offering training in practical skills e.g. radio and television repair
  • running an agriculture centre to train women in growing food
  • running low cost training schemes for nursing assistants

Awareness of rights and capacity building for adults:

People are often unaware of their basic rights (e.g. the right to vote or rights to pensions and maternity assistance) and lack the confidence to claim these rights, so they are exploited and abused. We offer:

  • training on human rights issues for local people so that they can work within their own communities
  • courses in legal rights
  • encouragement for self-help groups and other self-help initiatives

Health:

In this area we run:

  • an emergency ambulance scheme in association with the Tamil Nadu health services
  • eye camps to screen people for eye problems
  • awareness campaigns for TB, Aids and breast feeding