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Nandri CHild Resource Centres Changing the Lives of our Little Ones

Nandri has set up 10 child resource centres to cater for the overall support and development of our children.  All of these centres are looked after by remedial teachers appointed from the local villages.  Children come to these

The joy of learning in Nandri Resource Centre

centres after school and start their evenings with some traditional fun games in order to relax after their long days of learning at school.   Their evening studies are supervised by the teachers, who help them with their homework,  practice reading and writing skills, and also organise singing and dancing classes which the children thoroughly enjoy!

In this wonderfully positive atmosphere, the children’s education, talents and overall well being is being nurtured.  I

Early learning building life skills

was privileged to visit one of these centres in January, and enjoyed seeing their school work and a wonderful display of singing and dancing from the most happy, smiling little people.  It was a joy to see.

As most of the parents of Nandri’s  children are uneducated, they would be unable to help  their sons and daughters with their school work.  They are so grateful to Nandri Resource Centres for ensuring the very best for their children.  They see the difference it makes in their school grades and how happy the children are to participate in the after school programmes

Nandri Resource Centres are helping the future generations of Nandri families fulfill their dreams and escape poverty through education.

 

 

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Nandri Micro Loans Continue to Change Lives

 

In July, 52 Nandri mothers received life changing micro finance loans which would help them start their own business or give them the finance to send their children to third level education.   This programme gives a lifeline to our impoverished mothers and their families.   As the mothers pay back their loans each month, these repayments enable us to lend to more than 50 new mothers the following month.    The cycle of success of our micro finance loans continues to grow and flourish bringing hope and a future to new families each month.  NANDRI,  changing lives.

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Drumsticks making an educational and nutritious addition to Nandri!

Nandri Drumstick plantation

 

Our workers are busy removing the weeds at the drumstick vegetable plantation yard at Nandri Center.  Drumsticks, also known as Moringa, are vegetables loaded with valuable minerals, healthy proteins and essential minerals, making it a very healthy food. It is used as one of the ingredients in sambar, a type of stew. Being high in nutrients and tasty in nature, the leaves and pods of this green vegetable possess blood purifying properties and it also acts as a potent antibiotic agent.

 

We have created this drumstick yard to help train our agricultural students who come to Nandri to learn how to grow and tend crops.  In addition, we will showcase the plantation as a model as we bring forward our initiative to introduce allotment farming to our Nandri families. It is mostly women who do the weeding and even if they work along side men, the women get lower remuneration for their work.

Nandri Drumstick plantation

The physical work done by these workers will bear fruit within six months and we will use the drumsticks in Nandri Centre in the delicious South Indian food we will prepare for our guests and participants in our training programmes.

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“NANDRI Came To My Rescue”

 

From a very impoverished family,  Dinesh’s dreams of furthering his education and  achieving a degree, looked impossible.  With the help of an educational  loan from Nandri,  he completed his 3rd level education,  enabling him to support his sister and her children and in turn,  fund their education.  Nandri has changed his life and the life of his family forever:

“My Name is Dinesh Kumar. I have a sister whose name is Anthonyammal. We belong to a poor family. With great difficulties my sister helped me to finish higher secondary education. I wanted to go college but my sister could not afford to send me for further studies. But luckily she was a member of a mothers group called Semparuthi which is one of the mother group formed by Nandri. She contacted the field staff and told her about my educational ambitions and the financial needs that I was facing. Nandri came to my rescue and gave me an Educational loan to pursue mu college studies. I finished my B.com Degree course successfully. I also finished ITI one Year course successfully.

Now I am employed and earning comfortably. I am now taking care of my sisters family and the educational needs of her children. All this was possible only due to the timely help by Nandri. I would be always thankful to Nandri and Mothers Group. At the same time I have resolved to help the needy children like me through Nandri.”

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The Nandri Centre 2 years on.

In February 2016 we opened our Nandri Centre. This is a training and administration centre for our mothers and children built on 2 acres of land in a rural part of southern India. Previously we had to move every 12 months as our mothers who are members of the Dalit so called low caste community are like travellers in Ireland. They are not welcome anywhere.

They are proud to be members of Nandri. They proudly wear their Nandri saris. They even pay for membership which is helping to make the organisation self sustaining.

We have one large training room with full audiovisual facilities and a computer room with a dozen computers. We run regular training courses. Our large reception area is used for regular cheque presentations for loans.

A few weeks ago we had 200 mothers attend what is called an RPL (recognition of prior learning) course which is funded by the Indian government. This particular course was to teach the mothers how to pack and pick vegetables. The mothers are each paid to encourage them to attend the course and Nandri Foundation are compensated for running the course including providing food for the attendees. These mainly illiterate mothers are proud of the certification and it will be easier for them to get daily work and will also become an important part of our income following our major investment in the centre.

Every day almost 200 children attend English language courses in local villages. They learn spoken English through song. They get help with their homework and are provided with some nutrition before they play games. We now have a playground for them and a cricket training area in the centre and they will be invited there on a regular basis.

We are pleased with the success of the centre which was funded by large donations by Irish donors and directors.