Puvidham supports children of migrant workers - children who drop out of govt schools (as they are unable to cope with pressures of formal schooling) and children from National Child Labour Prevention (NCLP) programme. These children otherwise would struggle to obtain a formal education.
In 1992 Meenakshi Umesh and her husband decided to start a farm and school of their own in the dry, draught prone Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu. To make this dream come true, they bought 12 acres of land in the Dharmapuri district, dug bore wells, and built a house of their own in 1994. The next five years were spent in making the rocky piece of land cultivable. They planted trees, trained themselves in biological pest management and started practising self-sustaining organic farming of rice, ragi and jowar. The school Puvidham was started in 1999 and has been steadily growing in strength. The school started with seven children (two of whom were children of Meenakshi and Umesh). Most children came from the villages of Kalani Kattur and Avvai Nagar and a few from Savalukkuttai and Kuduppatti. Within a mere 10 years, the school gained so much support and appreciation from the community, that they now have 96 student, with 56 children in the hostel!
They were recommended to Asha London by some Asha India volunteers who were impressed with their work.
Missions
1) Providing primary school education to children of migrant workers, and providing hostel facilities to as many children as possible.
2) Imparting education to government school drop outs and children from the National Child Labour Prevention Program, who have been unable to cope with the pressures of formal schooling, with the intention of helping them join regular schools after Class VIII. Many of their students join without even a basic knowledge of the alphabet, or have been out of the educational system for many years disillusioned by the rigid schooling at government schools.
3) Giving the children a working knowledge of Tamil and English and a strong foundation in Mathematics, and getting them familiar with farming activities.
Puvidham supports children of migrant workers, children who drop out of govt schools (as they are unable to cope with pressures of formal schooling) and children from National Child Labour Prevention (NCLP) programme. These children otherwise would struggle to obtain a formal education.
The school not only provides a stable education to children of migrant workers, but strives to do so using methods of holistic learning to instill in the children a sense of self confidence and faith in the educational system. Against all odds (in the absence of funds etc) construction of a hostel recently has been completed to provide accommodation to children when their parents migrate to cities to find work. This new hostel building is concrete, reduces the risk of fire and keeps the children warm in winters. Meenakshi's husband who is an engineer recently constructed a solar water heater for heating water in winters, and a rain water harvesting plant to meet water needs in the monsoons. The children are involved in all these activities too and it helps them understand the importance of using renewable sources of energy and conserving the environment.
The children are often taken out for educational trips to the forest/ sea side to help them appreciate their environment better. They are also taught the importance of organic farming (Puvidham also runs a small organic farm in an attempt to meet some nutritional needs). A new curriculum based on experiential learning is being launched this year with more focus on ""learning by living"" than from text books. This project has been nominated for WAH funding as the recent construction of the hostel has resulted in severe depletion of the school's funds putting a burden on the ability to provide the children with proper nutrition and clothing (they were forced to postpone their plan to buy new uniforms for the kids due to lack of funding). We hope that with WAH funding, Puvidham can continue its good work in the field of holistic education.
