ORPHANAGE
Humanist Island of Hope:- This was established with the help of Narovinu in the year 2006 in Virudhunagar with children between 4 and 18 years. The children are orphans/semi orphans/deserted. They can attend school regularly from this home. They get free education, food and accommodation. They have a good chance to live life as normal children. AID INDIA takes care of their well-being, health and education.
Children in the orphanage are brought up in a special way. Humanist principles are followed in the orphanage. Non violence, indiscrimination and love for human being irrespective of caste, sex, religion and economic background are the main concepts they learn.
The children are going to school in the day time and are taken care of by the tutors in the orphanage the rest of the time. A Primary School (for children between 5 and 10 years old) is located in 1.5 kms. The Primary School children from the orphanage go to this school by a van. A Higher Secondary School (for children between 11 and 17) is located close to the orphanage. The children go to this school on foot. 54 girls are staying in the orphanage. On 15.09.2018 the JCI Bliss Virudhunagar gave “Salute the Silent Worker Award” to Miss M.Thangam, the Director of IOH in appreciation of her selfless service to the children of the Home. Also some of the children got prizes for participating various competitions.
AVE MARIA MATRIC HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL
This is the school established by AID INDIA in Sathankulam. The name of the location is called AVE MARIA PARK. Classes from LKG to 12 are functioning in the school now. Children from the villages around this school are educated through English medium. Recognition or License has been granted by Tamilnadu Government. Humanist Principles are imparted to the children along with school syllabus.
AVE MARIA FARM
At present AID INDIA owns 40 acres of land without a definite purpose. To make use of the land, we decided in 2005 to establish this farm. The purpose of the farm is to gain profit out of the agricultural activities to support our other projects, mainly the orphanages. The continuous failure of rain made the open-wells and bore-wells go dry. The farm became dry with bushes and thorn trees. We brought geological assistants and water diviners to our farm to find permanent water resource. They showed two places for making tube-wells. We proceeded with the new venture with confidence. Finally we found 2 excellent points to give water throughout the year, even if there is no rain. Once again we plan to start various agricultural based projects. In the future we like to use the farm for goat rearing, cow farm, verimiculture, nursery gardens, poultry and so on. The farm should support the activities and projects being carried out in the School, in the Ave Maria Center and in the orphanage Island of Hope at Virudhunagar. The available resources are land, water, electricity and an old tractor. The idea is to create a beautiful space with animals, fruit and vegetable plantations. This will especially help the girls who live in the orphanages of AID INDIA and will be a work opportunity for some boys once they have finished their studies.
We planting coconut trees with the support of Radici Globali. Banana trees are inter crop. After 2 years they will be removed. Inside the banana tree area the coconut trees are growing now. Pipe lines are made in the fields. Here are a few photos from our present farm activities.
MICRO CREDIT PROGRAM
GRAMA VASANTHAM which means “Village Prosperity” is the name of our micro credit program. AID INDIA has implemented this program to empower impoverished women and people with disabilities. With Grama Vasantham over 7000 women and over 300 disabled people succeeded in improving their lives!
To obtain a small business loan, women or disabled people form a Self Help Group with neighbors and friends whom they trust within their village. The number of women organized in a Self Help Group is minimum 10 and maximum 20. For the Self Help Groups of people with disabilities the minimum is 5 and the maximum is 10 members. Self Help Groups meet regularly: weekly or once every two weeks. Within the groups is decided what kind of businesses will be started with the loan (depending on the skills of the members). A bank account in the name of the group is opened and two elected group members are responsible for the operation of the account. They make weekly or monthly savings equally and regularly to pay off the loan eventually. All decisions are taken unanimously. Some members also save extra money which makes internal lending among the group members possible. AID INDIA gives training to the group members in book keeping, accounting, savings, credits, meeting modalities, legalities, purchasing, production and marketing. The groups have 99% repayment rates (there are exceptions to this rule, for example during natural calamities like the Tsunami when repayment was simply impossible). Besides providing loans to the Self Help Groups and training them in business and skill manners we also benefit the Self Help Groups with health programs, literacy- and leadership training. In this manner, AID INDIA helps to ensure the overall (financial, health, and educational) viability of their lives.
With the help of the Grama Vasantham program, local people establish sustainable income generation for themselves and their families. It makes it possible for women and disabled people to start up small businesses. These give the people financial independence, self esteem and a better future for the whole family. Aside from enabling people to be financially self-sufficient the micro credit program serves many other purposes:
1. To give awareness to rural women and people with disabilities on social issues like violence and discrimination against them.
2. To make rural women and people with social needs aware of their legal rights.
3. To make them aware on family health, child care and maternal care.
4. To offer them training in trade and markets.
5. To offer their basic education by implementing the New Linquistic program.
BOOK FEEDING PROJECT
The Bookfeeding Project was funded in 2013 by Beatrice Barco, an Italian volunteer who worked for AID India back in 2011 and returned with many ideas to improve the organization.
The Project, still managed by Beatrice with the help of other volunteers, is supported by AID India and aims at providing abandoned kids with English books and textbooks in order to create a furnished library in the orphanages of Sathankulam and Virudhunagar. The Project was born thinking at all those second-hand books, unused old electronic devices (PCs) and outworn clothes that people store up in their houses and that they are unable to give away. Things that would help us improving the facilities of the orphanage.
We would like to stress on the fact that The Bookfeeding Project survives on private donations: we are an initiative which does not receive financial support by the local authorities or any typology of religious institution. We chose the hard path but we do not regret it!
The staff is made up by people from different cultural backgrounds and religious beliefs that joined up together to help others. For free.
For how long this project may run, we want to keep it like this: FREE from any institution, ruled by VOLUNTARY staff and POSITIVE.
We want to be the change we would like to see in the World.
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