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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 Centre Bringing Laughter Joy and Happiness To Our Children

Nandri children having fun!

The Nandri Foundation is committed to the education and development of our children. All our activities are carefully designed to protect and promote the best interests of the child.   An important  part of that is insuring that our young people learn how to play together and have fun!  In the Nandri Centre, we have set up a playground for the children with lots of equipment that they can enjoy after they spend time in educational classes. Towards the end of their day, the children are so excited to go outside and the sound of their laughter fills the air!  It gives them a chance to forget their difficult empoverished lives and just be children having fun with their friends.  After a recent training programme for local children, you could feel the excitement in the air as the day came to an end and they could finally run to the playground!   In the words of  Jerald, our Chief Operating Officer  “The children forget everything and they are in their own world.  The campus is filled with laughter, joy and happiness”.  When the evening came to a close, the children were sad to tear themselves away from the playground and  leave –  but the Nandri centre will always be a place that our young people will remember with love, a place of positivity, education  and fun and they will long to return time and time again.  

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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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Evening Classes

Children in rural India are generally very weak in English. Even if they know a few words, they are too shy to use these words. Those children studying in Tamil get very little coaching at school to learn English. After the 12th class which is equivalent to leaving cert in Ireland, when some of these children join college education or poly techniques, they face a lot problem with English as the mode of lecturing is in English.

Nandri has started evening classes to enhance English speaking skills of the children with innovative and child friendly teaching and learning methods.  The intricate grammatical concepts are made easy for children with games, song and dances. Apart from spoken English, children are helped with their school assignments and also receive some food snacks.

The evening classes are named Nandri Joyful Learning Centres (NJLC) as the children should enjoy learning and feel happy to come to the centre.  The evening classes are conducted from 5.30 to 7.00 in the evenings. Some of the teachers are college students and they are benefiting from classes we have at weekends. The income which we pay them helps them with their fees.

In November 2016 we have a hundred children in NJLC and December 2016 fifty more will be added. The plan is to roll out this project next year to lots more villages. We want the villages to run these classes with teachers we will train. We want the villages to pay the cost and this will mean many more children will benefit.  

You can see from the short videos how much fun they are having while still learning 

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Nandri ensures a student nurse completes her education

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

Fred Crowe

CEO