Project Brief: Anawim is dedicated to the socio-economic development of coastal Dalit villages. Together with Asha, Anawim has set up eight Asha Junior Centers to provide educational support and enrichment activities for the children in these villages.
Project Type: Community Awareness Programs (description)
Primary Focus: to go to formal school (description)

Secondary Focus: creating resources

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact:
Seattle

Status: CLOSED - ENDED
Project Steward: Tara Bhandari
Project Partner(s): John Sekar
Project Address: IOI - International Ocean Institute (Anawim)
Anawim Trust - 1/497, Shanthi Nagar
Veerapandianpattinam, Tirunelvelli Road,
Tamil Nadu 628 216
Tel: 4639-245122
Stewarding Chapter: Seattle

Asha Junior Centers, dedicated to the education and all-round development of children, have been set up in 8 Dalit villages in the Tuticorin district – Ganesapuram, Kulashekarapattinam, Kurangantattu, Mangalwadi, Melatonipalem, Nathakulam, Thaneerpandal, and Valasubramaniapuram.

Dalits are members of a low caste in India (the “untouchables”), who have historically been subject to severe discrimination. In recent times, the treatment of Dalits has improved, but they still have limited opportunities and poor access to education. Dalit children in this district are generally first-generation learners, often have to walk many miles to attend government schools, and cannot afford the private tutoring classes that most other students attend.

The Asha Junior Centers, consisting of a small building with a teacher, books, toys, and other resources, are essentially supplementary education and enrichment centers that the children attend before and/or after school. However, they have provided so much value to the children’s and parents’ lives that they often become the focal point of the villages. The Asha Junior Center buildings themselves are constructed based on an innovative design by Lawrie Baker, which maximizes eco-friendliness while minimizing construction costs. The centers may have gardens tended by the students and provide nutritional supplements (e.g., spirulina, an edible and nutrient-rich algae considered a modern wonder-food).

The Asha Junior Centers also involve an innovative program intended to allow the project to eventually become self-sustaining.

Specifically, each Asha Junior Center is associated with a village women’s group, which is responsible for running the center and which meets regularly to discuss various topics. The women’s group, and the inter-village federation of women’s groups, provides women in the region with a platform to air their thoughts and concerns. To provide additional empowerment, Asha provides initial capital for a microcredit program which is run by the women’s group and allows the village women to take low-interest loans to fund their own enterprises. Income-generating activities that women in this area undertake include making and selling palm-leaf mats and coconut thatch, the retailing of soap and other consumer goods, opening small retail shops, selling snacks and other food items, etc. As the women pay interest on their loans and as new loans are made, the capital in the microcredit fund grows. It is expected that in about 3 years after the initiation of such a fund, the funds generated by this capital will be sufficient to fund the ongoing costs of the Asha Junior Center, allowing the center, in conjunction with the women’s group, to attain economic autonomy. In fact, 2 of the 8 centers that Asha has funded have already become self-sufficient.