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SITE-VISIT
REPORT OF PROJECT DREAM
Rishiyur and Vilakudi are two remote villages in the Thiruvarur
District of Tamil Nadu. The report represents the site visit made on 4th and 5th
August 2003 in Vilakudi and Rishiyur villages. The
volunteers from Asha are Mr.Rajaram Krishnan, Mrs.Lakshmi Suryanarayan and
Miss.M.Sathya Priya along with Mr and Mrs Arjun. Vilakudi:
Vilakudi has one primary school, one high school and two balwadies,
which we visited on 4th August 2003.
We started the day with one of the Balwadi centre among the two,
which was situated adjacent to the primary school.
The centre consist of 25 children and the building was constructed
in 1986. The building seemed
to be in a very dangerous condition. The wall of the building on all the
sides was damaged and cracked. In
rainy days, it is not possible to have classes for the children because
there was no proper roof as well as water was observed by the wall.
We gave few crayons for the children and made them to sing and
dance.
We could just spend a few minutes at the Rishiyur Primary school.
There the infrastructure is reasonably good. Currently they are quite
congested. However a new building has been sanctioned under the NABARD
scheme.
Then we visited the other balwadi centre at Vilakudi, which was
worse than the first one. The
classes are conducted in a hut without any building.
Actually, the place is given by the President of the village. It
was previously a cow shed. There
was no proper floor to sit for the children.
Due to poor condition of the place, the families are not willing to
send their children to Balwadi. Moreover,
it is always a danger of an insects falling into the food
or an insect bite due to the poor condition. They have been
sanctioned a new building. This may be delayed by a few months. Till then
they are planning to change the place, where the self-help group meetings
will held. Rishiyur:
Rishiyur has one primary school, and a Balwadi. In the afternoon,
we visited the primary school in Rishiyur village. In the school they
arranged for a meeting with the parents, teachers and students for the
distribution of uniforms and other things.
A brief orientation about Asha was given to the people who have
attended the meetings and disturbution of an uniforms took place. There
was some skepticism on the part of some of the lower caste parents in the
group that they will not get a fair treatment and that inferior uniforms
may be given to them. We had to reassure them that we will continue
monitoring the activities and not hand over the reigns completely to the
local village leaders. Mr.Rajaram Krishnan returned back to Chennai that
day. On 5th August 2003,
Mrs.Lakshmi Suryanarayan and Sathya Priya.M along with Mr and Mrs Arjun
visited the Balwadi in Rishiyur. The
building was better than the Vilakudi centres.
We purchased few playing items for the children in Balwadi at
Rishiyur. When we visited the place, the children was happy when we
started playing with the children and teaching them the name of an animals
by showing the animals toys. The centre consisted of 25 children where the
nutrition food was supplemented. Then we stepped into the primary school and had an discussion
with the teachers about the teaching ways by Mrs.Lakshmi Suryanarayan.
In the afternoon, Mrs.Lakshmi Suryanarayan spent half an hour in
each section on various subjects like English, Maths, Story telling etc.
which was observed by the teachers. At
last, the children as well as teachers was very glad and learned something
within the time limit. The
Headmaster was very thankful towards Asha for providing especially the
Atlas and Story books after knowing the usage of those things through
Mrs.Lakshmi Suryanarayan.
Mrs. Lakshmi Suryanarayanan also brought up the topic of teacher
training with the teachers in Rishiyur Primary school. All the teachers
including the Government teacher were very enthusiastic about coming to
Chennai for training. They were willing to come during their Navarathri
holidays. This was very encouraging.
One important aspect in this project, we had a discussion with the
manager of State Bank of India regarding the cattle loan for the people.
The bank has sanctioned the loan for twenty people. (by Sathyapriya, Rajaraman and Lakshmi) |