A Report On SDD-Vidiyal Project 

        In January of 2006 I had done a site visit of SDD (Society for the Development of the Depressed). Their project Vidiyal was recommended by Asha Chennai and received funding from Asha Wide in the form of Project under $2Kin September of 2006. The project is close to completing one year of operation. During this time Asha Chennai also assisted SDD in couple of other ways. Asha Chennai partly sponsored the trip of Mr. Manavalan, the principal trustee of SDD, for his trip to the World Social Forum held at Nairobi in February of 2006. Asha Chennai also provided a computer to SDD for use in training students at their NFE centers. We were also planning to launch a rural scholarships project with support from one CSS foundation. One of the NGOs we were thinking of working with for this project was SDD.

The intention of the project Vidiyal was to provide a home for child labourers who were working with various small businesses (like scooter mechanics or tea shop boys) in the Chetpet town. If not for this home these boys often just end up spending the night as well at their places of work since they often come from nearby villages. This would significantly reduce chances of any exploitation. SDD will also try to help these boys clear the 10th or 12th standard board exams through the open schooling system. This would open up other avenues of work for these boys as they grow up.

Asha Chennai volunteers did not have the time to do a site visit of the project. In the meantime Mr. Manavalan visited myself several times in the context of all the other supports mentioned above. In June Chandravel from Asha Honour was able to make a site visit to the project.

It was only after this and then talking to Manavalan that we realized several things with the project,

• They had not really been able to get children to come to their home. 
• So the project has become essentially an NFE center for primarily school going children in the Chetpet area. 
• They were sharing the “home” and the staff with their other administrative and other activities. 

In this context Asha Chennai invited Mr. Manavalan to attend our monthly meeting held on the 22nd July. We asked him questions about the changes in the project as well as why we were not informed about it (inspite of our meeting on an average a couple of times a month).

Mr. Manavalan said the initial identification of working children was done properly and the project had started well. But the children couldn’t be made to stay in the home. They were pressured by their employer to not do that. The project started falling apart. He had not informed us because he believed he would be able to get it working as planned once again. But that hasn’t happened. In the meantime the teacher appointed for this project Ms. Suguna, was able to assist neighbourhood children with their school work. This is the kind of work that SDD is doing in several villages around Chetpet. This then became the functioning of this project as well. We asked him if he was satisfied with the exetution of the project. He also agreed that he is not satisfied with the project as it is not being executed as planned. He said that he would like to steer the project in a different direction. 

We also had a concern about what the computer we donated was being used for. Chandravel had mentioned that there wasn’t a computer at the place he visited and that Manavalan sent someone to his home to get a printout. When asked Manavalan said it is in the office but was not working when Chandravel had come. It is being used to train the children coming to the center in the evenings.

Given all these, ASHA Chennai has decided to recommend stopping funding for this project and has asked Manavalan to write up a new proposal and bring it back to us for fresh evaluation.