I arrived in Chennai and immediately made my way to the site where our rural development centre is under construction.
We expect to complete the building and have the official launch and opening on 14th February 2016. If you would like to visit India and see the real India you are invited to attend the opening. We are going to organise a number of days visits to some of our different programmes and villages and mothers groups.
None of this would be possible without the very generous donations of a number of individuals.
This building will enable us to better serve the 2000 families which we currently help and would hope to double this within two years.
Fr Joseph, who is the CEO of our partner organisation in India has been in Ireland for the last few weeks. He has been very busy every day meeting sponsors in Dublin and Cork.
Joe has been in charge in India for about 10 years and during that time he has implemented many unique changes. We are the only charity in the world where every one of our sponsored children has their own bank account. The child’s mother manages this account. This gives her a great sense of status and pride. Dalit women do not normally own a bank account. He has successfully implemented a micro-finance programme where since 2012, 850 mothers have benefited and are now the proud owners of a cow or a sewing machine or some other assets which they use to earn an income. He also implemented third level education loan program. Already 250 children are benefiting from that.
None of this would be possible without the support of our hundreds of sponsors who pay by standing order or direct debit every month. Remember €1 is a days wages for the mothers we serve. We have also had some very kind and generous donors whose donations have enabled us to build a rural development centre which will ensure that our partner in India, Child Aid Trust.
Father Joseph received many donations while he was here and all of that money will be invested in our various programmes in India.
Yesterday Friday the 13th May 2015 the ceremony was held for the starting of the building and the laying of the foundation stone. This foundation stone was blessed by Nandri President and Director Fr Michael Murtagh in Ireland and personally delivered to India.
Before the building constructio commences a Bhoomi Pujan ceremony is carried out. According to Hindu culture, the earth is considered to be a mother. Bhoomi is the Hindu goddess Mother Earth. Before the start of construction, usually a Bhoomi Pooja is performed. This is to ask permission from Bhoomi Deva, and to get her good will and assistance. It also is to ask forgiveness for the disruption of the many living beings already on and in the land.
This building will provide administration and training and support facilities for our 2000 mainly dalit families. Once the building is completed in January 2016 we would hope to expand and grow the number of mainly families to double that number.
Antoni (not her real name) has been living in an orphanage since she was four years of age. Her uncle paid her fees to go to nursing college for the first year. Three months after the start of the second year it transpired that he was not interested or not in a position to pay for the second year’s fees so she was evicted from the college.
In February 2014 we met her and agreed to give her Rs.25,000 (€350) for her 2nd years fees and the orphanage agreed to pay her accommodation fees. We thought she could get some kind of bank loan but evidently the banks will only give a loan if the student applies in the first year. Sounds a bit silly but that’s the way it is.
We have have to repeat the loan for the third year and we will have to give her a loan for the fourth year as well.
Most of our third level education micro finance loans will be partially repaid from the date the child starts college. In fact the repayments are generally currently enough to cover a full years years loans.
Most of our loans are for Rs.10,000 per annum. The loans to the student nurse are unique but makes the difference between her finishing her nursing education and not doing so. And eventually when she repays us the money can be used to finance another nurse or engineer or whatever
Well done to Caoilfhionn Crowe and her friends who held a fundraiser with an Indian theme for the night. Caoilfhionn had brought back from India a dozen saris, one for each of her friends.
They raised enough money to provide a family income generation loan to 5 families. The families will be presented with a cheque by Caoilfhionn in India on Sunday, 25 January.
They will probably use the money to buy a cow which will provide the family with nutrition and milk and enough money to repay the loan over 20 months. At that point a second family will benefit from the money which was raised.
Just before Christmas we received a box of over 1000 Christmas cards from India. it’s a huge logistical job for our partner in India because the children attend over 200 different schools as far apart as Dundalk to Cork (200 miles). And it takes twice as long in India to travel the same distance.
Our field workers (Staff members who attend all of our mothers meetings) had to find each child either in school or at home, ask the child to write a short note to their sponsor or ask the very young children to make a little drawing.
The cards were then taken back to our office in India and because 90% of the children don’t speak English their note had to be translated from Tamil.
Once the cards were completed they were scanned and then added to our computerized child sponsorship management system. Each of our sponsors can now see their Christmas card and other information about their child including photograph or school exam record.
The online access we give our sponsors to information about their sponsored children is quite unique either among Irish or international charities. It is also very cost-effective for us. But we do know that many sponsors don’t have regular or any access to computers and we all know it’s nice to receive something personal in the post. All cards were mailed before Christmas.
In the meantime you can access the card online if you are a sponsor .
Another part of our child sponsorship system is unique internationally. Each child has their own bank account and the sponsorship money is transferred into that account. The mother has the passbook and each mother feels a great sense of pride going to the bank to take out money which has been lodged into the account. These low caste Dalit women would not normally be allowed into a bank. We are also encouraging them to save and this is happening.
Over 700 of our mothers now have their own “business” which is changing their family’s lives forever. Through our micro finance income generation program we have given them a loan to buy a cow or a sewing machine. Within a few years they will be earning so much money they won’t need the child sponsorship and this will be passed on to another family to start the cycle again.
So thank you to our dedicated staff in India who worked very hard to get the thousand Christmas cards.
More than anything thank you to our many sponsors and donors without whom we wouldn’t be able to change the lives of what is now almost 2000 impoverished families in India.
Mrs Thilagavathi is one of our 1500 mothers, who meet every month in our 100+ self-help groups. She has a son who is being educated thorough the child sponsorship programme. Two years ago it was very difficult for her to maintain her family and to keep her son in education.
Now things are changed with the help of NANDRI. What was NANDRI’S role?
In 2013, she joined a mothers self group. Although she was in dire situation, she had the talent to stitch and sew . From the mothers group she received Rs. 5,000/- (€75) as group loan and bought two tailing machines “second hand”. she started her business to earn money.
Later she got a micro finance loan from NANDRI, Rs. 20,000/- (€250) and bought two more machines to sustain her life. Now it was a great success after her hard work. Per month she is able to generate easily Rs. 4500/- to 5500/- through her work.
She is able to pay rent for the shop Rs. 2000/- and repaying the loan Rs. 1000/- and also managing to get provision for her food and lastly sustaining the child in education.
Also she is teaching 10 poor children and through which she gets around Rs. 1000/- which is also useful to her savings. Above all she has the interest and determination to teach tailoring to poor children freely. Hence she has asked the field workers to bring the children so that the children will be taught. She is really proud to be part of the NANDRI family and grateful to her sponsors.
Nandri.org is an Irish charity also called a not for profit organisation. All of the funds we raise are distributed through an Indian registered trust near Vellore in Tamil Nadu. We mainly work with Dalit and Dhobi communities. Although the local motto is “need not creed”.
Our objective is the education of children and the improvement of the living standards of our client mothers. We use micro-finance for income generation projects and various other programmes including child sponsorship, mothers’ self-help groups, training and health.
In December 2013 we seized an opportunity to rent 10 acres of land. This land had reasonable water supply, but had not been utilised to its full due to lack of capital. We reckoned that with a small amount of investment in infrastructure and stock, this could turn into a profitable farm. We were right. We are well on the way to covering the operating costs of our partner in India, ensuring that more of our money is use on our projects.
Our Farm
Almost a year later, we have built the infrastructure, including a building for cows who, unlike Irish cows don’t like the rain. It doesn’t rain very much, but when it rains, it comes down very heavy. We have a number of units to house chicks which will later become free range organic chickens for the tables of Chennai. We have 3 acres in rice paddy and the rest in groundnuts or peanuts and feed for our cattle.
Our 21 cows are now producing regular income from the sale of milk. All our feed is organic so we ultimately hope to get a premium price and milk prices are increasing anyway in India. We will sell our male calves normally at six months to a year old. Very little beef is consumed in India as cows are regarded as sacred. Our female calves will become mothers so we can increase our herd and our income.
We built some units to house three day-old chicks which need to be kept in a constant temperature. Electricity is not a guarantee in India, so we have invested in solar panels to ensure a constant temperature. The solar panels are also used to provide electricity for lighting and for water pumps. Once the chicks are three weeks to a month old they are then allowed to run round in a fenced area, but free to eat the plants and insects. We have entered into a partnership with the company in Chennai to market our organic free range chickens or country chickens as they are called in India.
We intend to set up a number of our 1500 mothers with small chicken units. We will provide them with feed, housing, fencing and 100 three week old chicks which we will then buy back at four months old. This will provide these mothers with an income. We intend to operate the same system with a number of local orphanages, which will also provide them with an income.
We also created a large fish pond and stocked it with 2000 fish. We have 250 ducks and through the miracles of nature the residue from the ducks is eaten by the fish who in turn produce residue which ends up as food for the ducks. I am an accountant, so I don’t really understand these things, but it works and we have income from duck eggs and soon fish, without much costs.
We currently have about 3000 chicks and once we have mastered the production of organic free range chicken we will increase our numbers. Shortly we will be running training programs for our mothers in how best to look after their cows and chickens. We are in the process of acquiring land close to the Nandri farm where we hope to build a rural development centre. This will have training rooms, sufficient space for a constant stream of visiting mothers. Accommodation for volunteers and of course, office accommodation for our staff.
Overall, this is turning out to be a successful programme. We are making a profit for us and others. We are providing products for our client mothers to sell. We are also providing training. We will be pleased when the profit we make will cover the operating costs so that we can focus on diverting all of our money to our programmes.
Recently, Oct 2014, the Prime Minister of India, Mr Modi suggested a clean India campaign. One of our mothers groups got started in their area as the following photographs which show.
This is an another interesting story that Nandri is doing that it not only financially supports mothers but also give social awareness that they should keep the surrounding neat and clean.
On September 30th, 2014, one of the mothers group namely “Arul Irakkam” – meaning ‘God’s grace’ came forward to clean a school water tank that was shabby and unclean for a couple of months. When it was known to the group along with the field worker, they planned and did the cleaning work so that the local school children may drink water. It was a good examplary work that they have done.
