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Education of the rural Poor |
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Under our Vidya Vikasini program of educating the under-privileged rural poor children upto the 8th standard, we have so far covered 650 children in Madurai and Coimbatore districts of Tamil Nadu. In Nagapattinam anf Tiruvarur districts from where BHF has withdrawn active expenditure, the local teachers trained by BHF are running several centers, benefitting 180 children, of whom 19% belong to SC/ST category and 53% belong to the Most Backward category. |
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We are now also working in 22 villages in Tirunelveli and Toothukudi districts of Tamil Nadu. Our activity in these districts is benefiting 640 children of which 460 are girls. |
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In all, with our 49 teachers regularly trained by us we are taking care of the studies of 1635 children in 46 villages. |
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From the start of BHF operations in January 2006 till the end of the FY 2010-11, 980 children, girls and boys, all from rural areas and from poor families have passed through our 8th standard Vidya Vikasini project. |
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Under our special tutorial for students taking the 10th and 12th grade Board examinations we have so far coached 880 children, utilizing the services of volunteer teachers from private Higher Secondary Schools and even some colleges. The pass percentage is more than 95; besides, the children’s chances of securing admission for higher studies in Arts and Science streams, vocational and professional courses, have increase significantly with their increased level of self confidence. |
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Computer literacy for rural children |
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Since start in 2007 of our Computer literacy project, so far 2860 children have acquired basic computer skills. 400 out of these belong to SC/ST category and 720 to the Most Backward category. The remaining are from other backward categories. As a result of our project, these children are capable of doing basic data entry work for remuneration. Some housewives have also got trained and their families are proud of the newly acquired skills. |
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Travel cum Heritage and Culture camps for children |
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Under this annual program during the annual academic vacation for our children we have been organizing travel camps. In this hugely popular program rural children travel under our care to culturally important places and stay together for three days. Training is imparted in the camps in physical exercises, mental alertness, public speaking, story- telling, singing and chanting, indoor games, yoga and Bharatanatyam. So far around 580 children have enjoyed and learned new skills in these camps. |
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Women’s and girls’ health and hygiene camps |
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Under this highly appreciated annual project we have so far brought health and hygiene benefit and knowledge to 2760 women and girl children from around 82 remote villages. In these one-day camps in rural areas we utilize the voluntary services of senior members of medical fraternity who are happy to examine and diagnose large number of rural women and girls from deep interior areas. We have so far done 9 such camps including one Siddha medical camp. 76% of the beneficiaries are from the Most Backward categories. |
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Palliative care for and Comforting poor patients in hospitals |
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Beginning this year our volunteers visit every week around 300 patients in a big hospital in Tirunelveli district. These patients are indigent and many of them are chronically ill with none to look after them other than hospital staff. Our volunteers comfort them with patient conversation with them, give them fruits and prescribed medicines where required. The volunteers also help patients or their relatives with Railway concession, blood donation etc. Home visits after discharge, also are undertaken. Those who are religiously inclined are also offered temple prasadams and sacred amulets etc. |
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Maintenance of Places of Worship and other cultural activities |
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In response to pressing request from rural families in the areas of our operation we identified a number of ancient places of community worship lying derelict, some of which are covered by shrubs and weeds. They have intricate carvings, historically valuable engravings and beautiful scul;ptures. The surroundings were found dirty and overgrown with weeds. We mobilized volunteers to clean up the surroundings, plant flower gardens and where possible clean up the structures also. So far three temples in Thoothukudi and one in Tirunelveli districts have been attended to. Local community leaders and temple committee members have been activated to start daily puja so that the devotees can have the satisfaction of visiting these places of worship. |
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A large structured competition among 1000 children was organized in song rendition, chanting of sacred literature including Bhagavad Gita, drama enactment etc culminating in a hundred children reaching the finals in December 2010. Parents and teachers were also in attendance at the time of prize distribution to winning child competitors. |
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Library Project |
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With a view to encouraging the reading habit among children in rural areas and in response to wishes of the families we have started in three districts( Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and Madurai) a small library of books, and periodicals. These are located in our computer literacy centers. The children during their recess time access these books and periodicals for extracurricular reading. We have also arranged for the books to be taken to our Vidya Vikasini evening class centers to benefit children who do not attend the computer literacy classes. |
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