We have taken up this challenge of making the present generation of adivasis literate and of ensuring that good quality education is accessed by every adivasi kid. Of course, we can achieve this only with the support of a lot many people like you who are interested to know about our work. You can start getting engaged with the adivasi community here by supporting our activities financially.

Some of our current needs are given here.

SUPPORT A CHILD IN VIDYODAYA SCHOOL

There are 95 adivasi children studying in the School right now from Classes Upper Kindergarten to Class 7. As a matter of principle, the adivasi community has decided that nothing should be provided free. On its part, the School promises a good education and on the their part, parents have to pay a small donation to the school – an amount fixed by community leaders based on the earning capacity of the family - and take care of the food and the books for the children. Books are provided at a subsidized cost. Most of the children travel as much as 15 kms. one way to come to school and this is a major expense. A part of this travel cost is also met by us.

Given the backgrounds of the children, most of them being first-time learners, the teacher–student ratio has been maintained at 1:10 in order to ensure a certain quality of education.

The annual cost of supporting a child through school is around Rs. 5000/=.   We are looking for support for the children to help through school.

SPONSOR A SOLAR LANTERN FOR A TUITION CENTRE

With the initiative of the local village people the Trust has helped to establish 13 Tuition centers. These Centres are evening classes for the children who go to school. They come in for two hours every day. For most of the children the school is far away and so by the time they get home it is late in the evening. Also, the teachers being local youth who go to work, by the time they get back too it is late. The classes can only begin at around six in the evening and by then it is dark.

We have been using kerosene lamps but kerosene is hard to come by. We need a more permanent lighting. Most of the villages have no electricity. Efforts are being made to obtain electricity connections. In the meanwhile we feel one or two solar lanterns would be a good idea as it has no running costs. The cost of one such lantern of 10 Wp is Rs. 3000/=. We are looking for sponsorers for these lanterns. If you would like to support us by sponsoring one or two of these please fill in the form attached and post it to us. We will let you know which Tuition centre has your lamp and we would appreciate your visiting the centre some time to see how it has helped to change the lives of these children.

SUPPORT A VILLAGE EDUCATION WORKER

The Village Education Worker has been the back-bone of our work. In the villages the parents leave early in the morning to their work-places and so there is usually no one to ensure that the children go to school. Talking to the community, they came with this simple and practical suggestion of having some one, one of the village grandparents, taking the children to school. Startoing with a few villages where this idea was tried out, it has now spread to all the villages. Each of these villages has appointed a village elder to take their children to school in the morning and to bring them back in the evening. Many of the villages are situated far away from the schools and the children have to come through forests or lonely plantation areas. These elders now escort these children to school and back. They are given a tea allowance of Rs. 400/- a month.

This programme began in the year 2000 and has been an exceptionally successful one. Over these last four years a number of villages we started with do not need any one to take the children to school anymore. However, we still have new villages to cover and these villages require a `grandmother or grandfather’ to take them to school. As one can see we cover over 200 villages while we have never had more than 65 village workers. This is because some of them cover more than one village and others either do not require such workers or someone from the community, usually a youth leader, has come forward to take on this responsibility without any payment. We have over thirty such volunteers and more are coming forward. 

We now have 66 such workers and look to you for support for them. If you would like to support one of these elders, please fill in the form attached and send it to us. We will let you know whom you are supporting and the village from which he or she comes. You can visit them when you are here and get their side of the story of the change taking place in their lives. The Sir Ratan Tata Trust is presently supporting these Village Education workers. We have suggested that we will raise support for these persons from other sources over the next three years, as the Tata Trust would like to fund other activities in the future.

SUPPORT A TUITION CENTRE TEACHER

With the initiative of the local village people the Trust has helped establish 13 Tuition centers. These Centres are evening classes for the children who go to school. They come in for two hours every day. The children don’t have a place in their houses to study, nor do they have the light. They also need a lot of help if they are to cope with the work that is going on in schools. We know today that every middle class child has to go to a tuition class to keep pace with the academic load.  For these children it is that much more difficult. Therefore such Centres are essential.

In each of these 13 villages it is the village people who have come forward to set up the centre. They have constructed or arranged for a place for the centre and maintain it at their expense. They have also met the costs of kerosene which is becoming scarce and costly now. From our side we provide some financial support to the Teacher.

The Teacher is usually a person from the village who has had some education and is motivated enough to come in after work hours to teach. These daily wage earners have to come to the Vidyodaya School every month for three days for training in teaching. These are young people who are convinced that the next generation should get a better deal and willing to work for it. We are giving them a small honorarium of Rs. 400/- a month, essentially to get them to have quick tea before they start the classes.

We look forward to support for these Tuition centres teachers as these are the people who are going to make a difference to their society. If you would like to support one of them please fill in the form attached and post it to us. We will let you know who the person you have supported is and you can write to them and visit them when you are here. As of now the Sir Ratan Tata Trust is supporting all of them. Over the next three years we would like to find other sources of support for these Centres and reduce the burden on the Tata Trust.

SUPPORT A VILLAGE STUDY CENRE

The average adivasi house being a one or two room construction, there is no space for children to sit and study. There is also not enough light in their houses for them to work after it gets dark. Any activity other than cooking and sleeping is conducted on their verandahs.  Some of these verandahs are not particularly conducive for study because it has also to be shared with other people, besides the odd goat, dog or chickens! When it rains the verandah is not hospitable any more and it rains a good six months of the year in Gudalur.

Now that all the children are going to school the suggestion to have place to study has come from the people themselves. They realize that as the children go to higher classes they have work to do at home if they have to cope in school. The children are also putting up these demands.

We have therefore decided to help them realize this dream of study centers in these villages by supporting them with some of the materials that they require to be purchased. We would like you to help with the construction of these study centers by pitching in with some financial support. Each of these sheds will be about 150 sq. ft. at the most and the overall cost will be about Rs.10,000. From our side we plan to supply some of the materials like roofing materials, which may cost around two or three thousand rupees. The Sir Ratan Tata Trust has come forward to support 10 such centers for start and we hope you will be able to help us put up one in every one of the 300 villages.

VIDYODAYA  SCHOOL  BUILDING  FUND

The Vidyodaya School is bursting at the seams. We already have 100 students in classes ranging from Upper K.G. to Class 7. The School has been operating out of essentially one small building, which has a floor space of about 1200 sq. ft. We have an additional makeshift building also. As you know, makeshift buildings are no more allowed after the Kumbakonam tragedy where around 100 children died. The roof of our main building and the makeshift one are held up by wooden rafters and it may not be completely safe. The present land and building belong to one of our Trustees Dr.Shylaja Menon and they have been generous enough to let us use it all these years. But now the school has grown beyond our ability to manage.

We have therefore decided to construct a proper building on an adjoining land, which has been leased in from the Gudalur Adivasi Hospital, a sister organization. The building will have eleven classrooms, a library and an office room. We would love to have a hostel too, but for now we will keep it in abeyance.

We have created a separate account towards the construction of the building. The total cost of the Building may be around Rs. Fifteen Lakhs. We appeal to you to help us to establish the school for the adivasi children on a permanent basis. Any support for furniture and fixtures is also welcome. Depending upon the donations we receive from you we could appeal to institutions like the Sir Ratan Tata Trust to come forward to match this Fund.

VIDYODAYA  TRUST  CORPUS FUND

The Vidyodaya Trust has been running the Vidydodaya School with donations received from well-wishers since its inception in 1993 up to the year 1999.  During some of those years it was pretty hard to make ends meet, but we have managed. In the year 2000, the Sir Ratan Tata Trust came forward to support the School as well as the expansion of the education programme in the villages. In August of 2004 the First Phase of our programme and our funding with them came to an end. The Tata Trust has approved a second grant for the Second Phase of the programme. This is for a period of three years – 2004-2007.

During the course of the three years that we have this support, we would like to build up our resources so that we do not have to depend on others over a long period of time. Schools are permanent institutions and one cannot expect to be funded all through their existence.

Over the next three years we would like to build up a Corpus fund of Rs. One Crore, as we can then subsist from the interest of this capital. We can also appeal to institutions like the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and others to match this fund with a grant from their side towards this Corpus.

The current expenditure towards the School and the field programmes is on the Website. If you wish to have any more information about the finances, particularly its financial history, please feel free to get in touch with us.

What would the Corpus be used for? All the field programmes will not be running after the third year, as they may not be necessary. Some of the programmes like the Tuition centers, libraries and so on, will have to continue and we hope that the people themselves will meet the major expenses towards such programmes. Efforts are being made in all this to get them to pitch in and wherever it has been possible the people have done so without any hesitation. The Vidyodaya School therefore remains the main programme that will require the support in the long run and which the community cannot really be expected to support financially. It is towards this that we now appeal to all of you to come forward and support.

WRITE TO US

If you are interested to support any of these initiatives, please send us a mail. If you need more information, we will be happy to send them to you. If you are already ready to be our partner in this challenging task, then you can send us your donation with the following details :

Please note that all donations from Indian tax payers are exempted under Section 80-G of the Income Tax Act.

Thank you.