Organisation Profile
TRY – To Reach You, is a social work organization reaching out to the socially, educationally and economically backward sections irrespective of caste, creed and religion. This organization was started as a tribute to a dream. When Anandkumar, a student of the Madras school of social work, died without realizing his ambition to start a welfare organization for the under privileged, his classmates took up the cause.
TRY’s primary focus is to
provide education for the underprivileged children in the society, priority is
given to the children’s of commercial sex worker’s for whom education is a
dream. Most of the 13 children who are now part of the TRY home are children of
commercial sex workers.
This organization works on a community based method where mother/parents and children are all involved. It provides a secure home, care and education to children who are abandoned, neglected or those belonging to broken families, especially the children of commercial sex workers. Many of these children have been abused and need a secure safe home away from such abusive situations that will enable them to develop into productive members of society. It is also understood that providing a safe home, care & education to the child, by itself will not find a permanent solution to the bigger problem of prostitution and sexual/physical abuse of the children of the women engaged in prostitution.
TRY hopes that by working in close touch with the mothers and engaging them in dialogue and making them feel secure by finding them other means of earning an income, it will create an impact that can be more lasting than just functioning in a charity mode of providing for the children alone. TRY believes in family and community based rehabilitation. TRY does not wish to be a dumping ground for the socially neglected. It is an organization where people come to solve problems and are rehabilitated to join the social mainstream and contribute as useful citizens. Deserted women and the sex workers are given counseling so that they can stop their profession. TRY strives hard to get these commercial sex workers out of their profession by reaching out to the community and finding them alternative jobs and also provide them with moral support and counseling in trying to keep them in those jobs.
Ø To
provide a secure loving home, and education for the children of sex workers who
are vulnerable to abuse because of the profession of their mothers.
Ø To
promote awareness in the society of a sensitive and difficult issue i.e.,
prostitution and the plight of the children of people involved in that
profession.
Ø To
rehabilitate women who work as commercial workers to get out of that profession
by giving them counseling and finding them other means of earning an income.
Ø To
eventually establish a center for open dialogue and effective action to combat
the problem of prostitution and also provide a forum for women and children in
such abusive situations to seek help and escape from it.
Since TRY was established in
1996,
Ø Forty-two Families had been
given counseling / vocational training and rehabilitated. TRY had helped the
women who were indulged as sex-workers to find an alternate profession and
thereby lead a normal life.
Ø More than 85 children from
underprivileged community between age group 3 – 10 years, have benefited basic
education, shelter and care. More importantly by rehabilitating their mother /
parents / family they had been successfully put back into the mainstream of social
life as useful citizens.
Ø Because of the good social work
background, TRY had also helped several street children, mentally retarded
children, physically disabled children by coordinating and working with other
organizations & agencies.
Involvement with Asha
TRY has a long history with Asha Chennai, Asha Boston, and
Asha Syracuse. Chandravel, the coordinator of TRY, has been an active volunteer
for Asha-Chennai for several year. He has been a critical member in the
implementation of several Asha-Chennai projects. TRY has been receiving support
for their operational costs from Asha Boston and Asha Syracuse the last couple
of years. Anuradha Raghavan of Asha Boston and Radha Ganesan of Asha Syracuse
have been offering critical support over the years.
Chandravel has been attending the Asha India conferences
over the last 3 years. Through such forums, he has made contacts with
coordinators of other Asha supported "sex workers children" projects
like Guria (Varanasi), Street to School(Kolkata). Once the home is established,
it will serve as a meeting place for a meeting of these minds. TRY has
potential to evolve as an integrator for large scale connected action across
India, uniting projects in this "sex workers children" category.
Objective of the proposal
submitted for WAH funding:
To build a permanent home that will be owned by TRY organization.
TRY Children’s home is presently
running in a monthly rented house at Ramapuram, Chennai.
1) What are the disadvantages of running the TRY home in a rented location as opposed to its own permanent home?
There are many disadvantages of
renting a home as opposed to having a permanent home. Because the mothers of
these children are commercial sex workers, there is an instant reluctance and
often a refusal to even consider renting the house to them. Housing is a priced
commodity in a place like Chennai and there are scores of people trying to rent
houses. Because of this, it is very difficult for TRY to find houses to rent in
the first place. And even when they do find homes, the landlords are quite
uncomfortable because of the taboo associated with the profession of their
mothers. So TRY is left to the mercy of the landlords to not change their mind
at their whim. In the past 3 years, the home has shifted 3 times. Mostly the
children feel the impact of this because they also have to shift schools each
time the house location gets shifted.
Also there are other peripheral,
yet important problems that TRY has had to contend with during such shifting of
locations. One example is when the principal of the school the kids were moving
out of, refused to give the children their transfer certificate because it had
been a few months since the academic year had begun (but TRY had no choice in
the matter because they had been asked to move out and it was hard enough to
find another home, so they had to take what they got at that point in time).
The reason the government school refused to give them their transfer certificate was because they would
have difficulties in getting the funds allocated to their school if they didn’t
show a certain number of students registered in that school. Just so the
education of the children would not get compromised for a whole year,
Mr.Chandravel the coordinator of TRY had to practically threaten the school
authorities that if the transfer certificate was not issued, he would conduct a
fast on the school premises along with a bunch of supportive locals (that he
claimed he could gather) until the transfer certificate was issued. TRY has had
to go through such difficult terrain just to keep some minimal functioning of
the home and keep the children in school.
2) What are the advantageous if
TRY had its own permanent home?
As is clear from the
difficulties that TRY has had to contend with because of the nature of the
organization (i.e. – involving children of sex workers and rehabilitation of
sex workers), TRY would benefit immensely from having its own home.
a) Most
importantly, it would alleviate TRY from having to compromise on the education
of the children by shifting them from school to school at random times in an
academic year.
b) It would
give the children a feeling of stability that is crucial to them feeling
secure.
c) It would
relieve Mr.Chandravel of the uncertainty that crops up time and again when they
are asked to shift out of their rented home and allow him to focus on the needs
and development of the children.
d) It would
allow him to take on more children making it more cost efficient (i.e. more
children for the same money spent in a smaller rented home) and giving that
many more children who live in potentially abusive situations the security of a
home offered by TRY. In particular with this project funding TRY would expand
its operations to cover over 50 children.
e) This would
provide some income generation potential for TRY. Madras School of Social Work
often contacts organizations like TRY to see if they can accommodate visiting
social work interns from foreign countries. Till now TRY has not been able to
take any such interns. In addition to bringing TRY in contact with potential
donors this would also provide a regular source of income by renting rooms in
their property to such interns.
f) It would
allow Mr.Chandravel the time and freedom to use the space to bring the mothers
to the home (in rented homes, he has to worry about the opinions of the
landlords) and give them the necessary counseling and also allow more
interaction between the mother and her child while they are at the home.
g) The
growth of an unique organization like TRY that has taken up such a challenging
objective (which is often not dealt with by many well meaning organizations
because it is a socially uncomfortable issue to deal with) will set an example
for many others to not shy away from this issue and it would save many children
from getting into abusive situations because of the profession of their
mothers.
Cost Details:
Cost of 2 grounds land in
Ramapuram: Rs 14 Lakhs.
The cost of land in Ramapuram is
about Rs 8 Lakhs per ground. However since the owner of this property knows TRY
and would like to help, he is willing to sell this land for Rs. 14 Lakhs. This
land is ideally located for TRY for several reasons:
Cost of registration of Land: Rs
1 Lakh.
Cost of construction of 2000 Sq.
feet of building: Rs 10 Lakhs.
Note: This would leave some land
that can be built upon later. Another 2000 Sq ft. of built space can be added
at this ground.
Total Cost: Rs 25 Lakhs
Local donors have offered TRY Rs
11 Lakhs if TRY is able to raise the remaining amount required for the
construction of its home.
Total Funding Required from Asha
= Rs 14 Lakhs. = US $30,000.
Why should TRY be
selected as a WAH 2003 project?
There are reasons why the cost
per child for this project is a little on the high side. Since this
organization is dealing with an urban problem that is quite rampant in Chennai,
the home cannot be moved to some distant village just to keep costs low. The
children are in Chennai and the mothers who are given counseling and gradually
weaned out of their profession are located in the city. In order to make it as
cost effective as possible, Mr.Chandravel has decided to buy a home in the
outskirts of the city. Also the home has to be built near some hospital because
some of the children have health issues (one child is asthmatic) and he needs
to be able to take them to the doctor and to some hospital that is not too far
off from the home. After such considerations, it was decided that the home
would be built in the outskirts of the city that would strike a balance between
costs of buying land and also being close to good medical care and good
schools.
One other possibility that can also be considered is that
the land for the home be registered under Asha Chennai's name. At some suitable
point down the road, perhaps in 5-10 years, the core team may make a
decision to transfer the ownership to TRY organization completely.
Besides these there are several
reasons why Asha should support this project and form a long term partnership
with TRY.
(i)
The TRY children of sex workers have had a very difficult
time over the last 4 years, being constantly moved around. They have shifted
residence over 3 times during this period as no one wishes to associate with or
rent to children of such background in a stable fashion. Once the TRY home is
established with WAH support, it is expected that up to 50 children on this
background will come to benefit for the long term.
(ii)
High quality support will be balanced with impact on
higher numbers of children in the coming years. Asha Chennai and TRY both
belive in Quality * Quantity balance.
(iii)
TRY has a history of close working with Asha. Therefore
there is a great deal of trust in their credibility and capability.
(iv)
TRY in partnership with Asha-Chennai has potential to
evolve as an integrator for large scale connected action across India, uniting
projects in this "sex workers children" category.
(v)
Through this TRY, Asha Chennai cooperation, we propose to
bring greater focus in year 2004 for projects in India impacting children of
sex workers.
For these reasons we believe TRY is a good candidate
for WAH2003.
Contact information:
Asha Chennai contact person:
Rajaraman Krishnan
rajaram@solnettechnologies.com
Tel: 91-44-24989435
Asha Boston contact person:
Anuradha Raghavan
Tel: 617-776-9096
TRY (India) coordinator:
Mr. Chandravel,
TRY - To Reach You,
No: 13, Giri Nagar, Ramapuram, Chennai - 600089
Tel:22493443 Pager :
9632737699