Asha for Education

Project Brief: Primary school in Manjampatti village, a tribal hamlet in Kodai hills, TamilNadu, educating about 60 tribal children from 3 hamlets with no other schools nearby.
Project Type: Residential School (description)
Primary Focus: children of dalits/tribals (description)

Secondary Focus: girls

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact:
Silicon Valley

Status: CLOSED - COMPLETED
Project Steward: RANJANI KUMAR
Co-Steward: Vidhya Govinadraju
Project Partner(s): Alexander J
Project Address: TRUWDES - School for Tribal Children, Manjampatti
Vallalar Thai Tamil Palli
Keelanavayal Post, Manavanur via
Ma.Manjampatti, Tamil Nadu 624103
Tel: 011919360 523555
Stewarding Chapter: Silicon Valley

Trichirapalli Rural and Urban Welfare Development Educational Society (TRUWDES) in Trichy, TamilNadu has been running a school for tribal children in Manjampatti village, a tribal hamlet in Kodai hills, for the past five years targeting tribal children from 3-5 villages/hamlets nearby. There are no link roads, no electricity (except some solar lamps), no schools, no ration shop and no shops in these villages. The only way to reach the villages is by trekking about 3-4 hours through reserved forests, after taking permission from the forest department.

Manjampatti, the main village in this hilly area, and the villages nearby are predominantly inhabited by tribals or "Adivasis" who live off the land. Being in the midst of reserved forests, the people are forced to protect their crops from wild elephants, bison, wild boar, deer, etc. Once they harvest their crops (mostly just paddy), they have to hire ponies to take them down to Udumalpet (closest big town, about 50km away) and sell them there. The main village has about 60-70 families.