Balwadi boy telling a story to his classmates
GOAL:
Improve the socio economic standard of needy women through programs and support services.
organizing, educating and motivating women to take up income-earning activities; improving women's skills and economic status so that they can increase their role in decision making in domestic and community settings; improve knowledge of womens rights; organize women to take up public causes such as improving hygiene; to organize child care centers, non-formal adult education centers and other programs to assist the community. SHARE was registered in 1991 but has been working under different registration (as a cooperative) in this area since the 1970s. SHARE has village handicraft production centers primarily palm and coir in 27 villages and employs over 800 women. It is a hybrid between a traditional handicraft producer cooperative and an activist organization. SHARE solicits orders for crafts, arrange for raw material, and provides advanced craft training, and comes up with new designs for crafts, which are produced in centers in each village(national and international sales are about 35 lack). In addition, through a combination of the organization's own profits and funds it raises from foreign groups, it offers other services, e.g. balwadis, scholarships, etc. It does a particularly impressive job of fostering leadership among the organization's members. The executive committee, composed entirely of craftwomen, plays a critical role in guiding the organization. The organization's leaders have gained such stature in the community that 9 have recently been elected to the panchayat raj.
Improvement of Poor School Children in Education in the Village community
Five villages outside of Vellore, Tamilnadu, India
Mr. K. Murugesan, Project Co-ordinator
Self Help Association for Rural Education and Employment (SHARE)
33-A Christie Mathews Memorial Complex
T.B. Sanatorium P.O.
Vellore, Tamilnadu 632 011, INDIA
Tel. 91-0416-224018
91-0416-223524
91-0416-70303
Fax. 91-0416-223524
Funding is for five centers to provide children with after-school tutorial . Budget for the first year, rent (150 x 5 centers) Rs, 9,000 animators honorarium (200X12) Rs. 12,000 study materials Rs. 5,000 ed. tour Rs. 2,000 performance prizes (1000) Rs. 1,000 supervisor salary (Rs. 750x12) Rs. 9,000 ---------- Total Rs. 38,000 ---------- Funds required from ASHA, Year 1 Rs. 28,500 (SHARE pays Rs. 5,700; Community 3,800) Year 2 19,000 (SHARE pays Rs. 9,500; Community 9,500) Year 3 9,500 (Share pays Rs. 9,500; Community 19,000) Year 4 none (Share pays Rs. 9,500; Community 28,500) Year 5 none (Community bears entire expense)
Starting March 1997 to Feb. 2000
This is an after-school tutorial program for poor children in five villages. It is designed to improve their performance in school, encourage them to participate in village improvement, improve self confidence, discourage dropouts,improve awareness on sanitation and environment, encourage extracurricular activities, motivate children to keep up with current affairs, educate parents in social economic and health; and cultivate a spirit of national integration. The number of students has not been specified. However, in one center I visited last summer there were about 30, pretty equally divided between boys and girls.
Amanda (17 Jan 97) I spent one week visiting this group during the summer of 1996. Its handicrafts project is among the most impressive development projects I have ever visited- high quality crafts, competent marketing (primarily international), terrific grass-roots leadership, and a real commitment to women's empowerment. I also visited one of the after-school programs in the evenings. It also looked good songs, stories, a place for kids to shine. I think this project deserves our support.
Amanda (17 Jan 97) After visiting them this summer for a week (doing masters thesis research) I suggested that they apply to ASHA.
Visit summer 1996; funding request dated 11 Dec 96 Summary by Amanda (abickel@mit.edu) --- (17 Jan 97) Approved January 30th, 1997
Approved
* Is registered society with tax exempt status in India * Funding for social welfare activities and awareness-raising programs comes from a combination of own resources from handicraft profits, government grants to assist handicraft business, and foreign funds (recently received a grant from GTZ to support some infrastructure for the craft business and awareness training programs; have also received government funds for craft training and craft development center). * Totally secular, participants poor, lots of SC/ST participation, Muslim & Hindus are working together in the project. Project was originally started with help from CMC Vellore, but is now independent. Project coordinator seems to have an essentially Gandhian orientation (trained at Gandhigram). * I would call this a mid-size project. It has 23 staff, most of whom are village animators who are craftswomen themselves. Assets for 96 were 23 lack, most of which was in buildings; income was 43 lack (looks like much more than it is since this reflects the cash flow of handicrafts bought from members and sold on the market, rather than profits). The project has grown very substantialy in the five years it changed from being a government registered cooperative (and thus under the control of a government-appointed special officer) to a registered NGO.