Asha for Education

Project Brief: Siddamma is working on creating a community resource center to document community based knowledge and provide a base for communities to test eco-friendly alternatives in agriculture, pottery, dairy, herbs and energy.
Project Type: Fellowships (description)
Primary Focus: creating resources (description)

Secondary Focus: vocational training

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact:
Austin

Status: CURRENT
Project Steward: Sowmya Suryanarayanan
Co-Steward: Vikram Iyengar
Project Partner(s): Siddamma E
Project Address: Fellowship: Siddamma
184/14C-2 Jayanagar,
Tamil Nadu
Tel: 9884080048(C), 44-65519972(H)
Stewarding Chapter: Austin

Siddamma is a grassroots activist who has worked extensively with the Irula tribal communities. Her work is multi-faceted depending on the needs of the people. She has coordinated many motivational centers that makes learning fun and helps children integrate into the mainstream. She has also worked with the youth and organizing people and making them aware of their rights, e.g. understanding that laws exist for the people to earn minumum wages. More recently she has been instrumental in the release of bonded laborers from the rice mills in Red Hills (30 km from Chennai).

She is also working on creating a community resource center. The idea of the resource center to document community based knowledge. It also provides a platform to the community to try out for eco-friendly alternatives. One of the focus areas is the use of natural/organic cultivation systems and traditional seeds. The demo center would help communities experiment at the village level. Many of the old villagers feel that the young generation depend too much on pesticides and fertilizers and it would give them an opportunity to handle this through a demonstration of different techniques. Similarly, in agriculture the seed storage system is almost vanishing. The result of this is that many of the traditional seeds have disappeared and the mutated seeds have only a one cycle lifetime and can�t be reused. As a result the farmers are dependent on companies for even seeds. Agriculture is one focus; the second is pottery i.e. the use of earthen pots vs. plastic. The third is a dairy the village diaries are almost extinct. The fourth is weaving the fifth herbs/honey and gum that the tribal people obtain from forests and the sixth is renewable energy. The collapse of local economies increases dependence on outside products and since the purchasing power is much lower than cities this results in worse living conditions.

The resource center does not only serve as a laboratory for the villages, but also provides an opportunity to learn what we should be teaching our children. The center would double up as a fulltime school for children who have dropped out from the regular schooling system and can benefit from alternative education and vocational skills.