Fellowship: Senthilkumar Gopalan

Project Brief: The long term vision for Senthilkumar is to create an ideal model for a self-reliant village, which can be used to develop villages across the country. Senthilkumar is looking for support from Asha For Education to carry out his activities.
Project Type: Fellowships (description)
Primary Focus: creating resources (description)

Secondary Focus: health and cleanliness

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact: UFlorida
Status: current / ongoing
Project Steward: Ravi Venkatraman
Project Partner(s): Senthil Gopalan
Other Contacts: Meera Sitharam
Project Address: , Thennur Village,T. Kalathur via Kunnam Taluk,Kunnam Taluk,
TAMIL NADU  621114
Tel: 011-91-432-723-4644
Stewarding Chapter: UFlorida
Apr 2019UFloridaUSD 4354
Nov 2017UFloridaUSD 4679
Apr 2017UFloridaUSD 1571

Total = $10604

Senthilkumar's approach is to engage people from the local community, provide relevant training, develop their skills and prepare them to take ownership of the development of their region.

Asha for Education will support Senthilkumar in his activities to achieve his objectives, which are listed below:

➔ Health: Train locals as health workers to provide health care and health education.

➔ Education: Overcome the lack of facilities in government schools by providing additional staff, learning materials and alternate methods.

➔ Income Generation: Develop skills of locals and provide support to create and encourage local entrepreneurs.

➔ Infrastructure: Strengthen the availability of basic infrastructure that can provide basic health, education and sanitation facilities along with space for social activities.

➔ Agriculture: Demonstrate organic farming techniques in Payir farm and facilitate farmers to adapt the same.

➔ Nutrition: Carry out supplementary nutrition programs in schools to improve performance of children in school as well as overall health and well-being.

➔ Local Governance: Partner with the Panchayat in its activities and facilitate participation of more people in the Gram Sabha activities.

A secondary aim is to create awareness in all the above aspects as well as related issues like environmental protection, areas in which Payir has been involved.
The long term vision for Senthilkumar is to create an ideal model for a self-reliant village, which can be used to develop villages across the country. Thenur is a diverse village consisting of people representing multiple religions and castes. Hence, this serves as a good test bed to replicate programs across India. Multiple initiatives have been undertaken keeping this larger vision in mind.
Payir was founded in 2004 January by Senthilkumar Gopalan an engineer who had worked in India and US in various industries ranging from Thermal Power Plants to Information Technology.

Vision: Payir envisages the transformation of Indian villages into a socially stimulating, self reliant, growth oriented community rooted in the principles of Truth - a society where people practice and interact with the highest moral values