Projects

AASAI is supporting several organizations in India that are involved in projects that span the entire segments of Indian population:

Village School for poor children Sri Ramani Renganayaki Trust, Aduthurai, Tanjore Dist, Tamilnadu Educational excellence Sri Ahobila Math High School, Chennai School for orphans Children’s Garden School, Chennai Pattamadai High School. Tirunelveli District

Health Services Voluntary Health Services, Chennai Eye Care Shankara Netralaya Mental Health Care TRUST : Training and Rehabilitation of Underprivileged members of Society, Trichy –Tamil Nadu, India.

School for special children Little Angels, Bombay Rehabilitation of abandoned children Deena Seva Sangha, Bangalore Home for destitute elders Sri Mahamerur Trust, Chennai Upliftment of Women Kasthurba Gandhi Kanya Gurukulam - Vedaranyam District, Tamilnadu

Village School for poor children - Aduthurai, Tanjore District., Tamilnadu

CAN RURAL EDUCATION BE AS GOOD AS URBAN EDUCATION IN INDIA ?
V. Swaminathan (IAAS retd), AASAI Chennai chapter

If good education is the engine of all development, is it available in uniform quality in all parts of the country? Is there not a great divide in the quality of education that is available to the well to do people in towns and to the rural poor? These are rhetorical questions. SRI RAMANI RANGANAYAKI TRUST, established in September 2001 in Chennai, is trying to find some answers to the questions posed above and is working true to the saying in Tamil “Yaan Petra inbum vaiyakamum peruga”, let others also receive the same education that you got.

The Trust chose a hamlet in Thanjavur District, located on the left bank of the River Cauvery , well known cultural center of Tamilnadu. The school started with its humble beginning with a plot of 7500 square feet and a small building to provide quality primary education to the rural poor children, without any cost to them. Four women teachers were selected from the surrounding areas and trained as teachers in the well-known Children’s Garden School, Chennai (which is another school that AASAI supports). The school started with a total of 40 children whose parents are mainly agricultural laborers with minimal income, out of over 80 applications for the lower and upper kinder garden classes.

Today, thanks to your generosity over 130 children upto third grade level receive free quality education that is at par to any school in India. The children are given school uniform, textbooks, notebooks and midday meal – all free. An immunization program has been implemented to ensure that the children do not contract the related dreaded diseases. The children are given needy items so that they come to school fresh and tidy. There is even a parent – teacher association that ensures interests of the children are well served.

A classroom costs Rs. 120,000 ($ 2500) to build and provide necessary equipment. The cost of providing free education to the children works out to Rs. 5000 ($ 110) per child per annum, as per current estimates. AASAI invites its members and other friends to help this institution by sponsoring classrooms and the education of children as explained above.

Adjacent to the school, the trust has established another destitute senior citizen home that houses 10 elder citizens. They cook meals for the midday meal program to the children abnd thus lead a productive life. This model of one segment of the society helping others for common good is the precise model that AASAI has envisioned. Please donate generously.

Educational Excellence - Sri Ahobila Math High School, Chennai

Nearly three years ago, AASAI’s Raghavan visited the Sri Ahobila Math Oriental High school at west Mambalam, Chennai. The school exudes a unique combination of the ancient charm of India with the reverberating voices of students reciting vedas and prabhandams and the clicking sound of modern-day computers. The simplicity of the school’s surroundings and the students stand out as if to proclaim to the whole world that a teacher’s dedication, student discipline, and insatiable desire for learning, are far more important than money and modern-day conveniences for success.

As if to reiterate this concept, many students of this school have achieved top state ranks again this year in the state wide public examination with students scoring marks of over 1170 out of 1200 (see side honor role of students). Over the last three years AASAI has proudly acknowledged the students’ achievements and gave out total cash awards of approximately Rs. 20,000 per year.

When we the bright young faces of the students, AASAI can easily visualize the prosperous future India. Please donate generously and be a part of this evolution.

TRUST : Training and Rehabilitation of Underprivileged members of Society, Trichy –Tamil Nadu, India

A charitable non-governmental, non-religious, non-profit organization that is actively working for the cause of mental illness and provide comprehensive care for the underprivileged mentally disabled, retarded, challenged people at a national level. At present more than 300 mentally disabled people are under our care. This NGO provides all the essential services -prevention, intervention and rehabilitation that is required in the field of mental health & psychiatry.

Some Key services are :

Nambikkai - Rehabilitation, Occupation therapy, suicide prevention centre
Where all kinds of mental disabilities are given their due importance-Mental Retardation, Schizophrenia, Chronic epilepsy, loco motor disability and visually challenges. The enrolled patients are evaluated to identify their abilities, skills, orientation level, and interests. Suitable vocational training is given and the working patients get rewarded with nominal salaries. In some cases these patients get cured and get placements in the industry. More than 250 patients have been cured thus far. Currently about 60 patients under our care. The vocational training results in some products, which are branded and sold in the market are : Soap oil, Phenyl, Incense sticks, dhoop, Candle, Dish washing powder, Dolls, Craft works, Plaster of Paris statues .

TRUST Nambikkai also engages in preventing suicides by having a suicide counseling program both at the center as well as through community outreach and Telephone HOT LINE, Suicidal individual can contact well trained counselors, ventilate their emotion, express their problem, get psychological help and maximum possible other supports. This centre has prevented hundreds of suicides in the neighborhood communities.

Shanthivanam - A Residential care centre for mentally ill and destitute
A national integrity project with Residential Home for mentally ill and destitute, homeless wanderers, who are poor, men/women/children, educated/illiterate and from all religions and from all parts of India. These clients are housed, medically cared for and counseled for their full recovery and return to normal life. Every effort is made to reunite the cured and rehabilitated clients with their families or other foster families and/or find meaningful job opportunities for their economic well-being. More than 50 destitutes have been reunited in last 3 years. Currently about 80 patients under our complete care & shelter. As more and more public service organizations and police units are sensitized with the plight of such 'wandering mental ill' people , the number of patients seeking or needing this residential care is growing everyday.

Puthuyir - Crisis Intervention Centre
People in group or individually experience, life threatening, unforgettable, out of normal human experience. Such experiences develop into Psychological Crisis Reaction. The most common reasons are fire accidents, earthquakes, war, accidents; rape etc. and consequently people develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Puthuyir unit is dedicated to provide timely emotional , moral and medical support in such crisis situations for individuals and group. Notable examples are our support for Tsunami disaster , and people affected in the School Fire Accident in Kumbakonam.

Velicham - Community Awareness & Rural mental health education program.
Community Awareness & Rural mental health education
The major reason for mismanagement of mental illness, high cost, high disability rates and social problems is ignorance and misconceptions about mental disorders. The public needs to be educated about early identification and early treatment as well as education on various facilities available in this mental health field.

TRIMAS - Trust Research Institute of Mental Health and Social Sciences
TRIMAS was started with the aim of imparting knowledge in Mental Health to Medical & Paramedical and Social Work students & Community Workers. This institute offers various programs to disseminate the knowledge of psychiatry, psycho-pharmacology and skills of social work in the mental health field.

Alcohol Anonymous(AA) - Self help group for ex-alcohol dependents and present addicts.
Self Help Group for alcohol dependents and ex-alcohol addicts This is self-help group with members who had abstained from alcohol and also some of the alcohol dependents with insight & under some de-addiction program meet regularly to ventilate their views, share experinecs, and get mutual help. Abstained members motivate other alcohol dependents to abstain, help them in recovery process and motivate the alcoholics to join the mainstream.

AASAI has endorsed the charity activities of TRUST for mental health after AASAI Directors Mr.Raghavan , Dr.K.Subbu Subramanian visited our facility in India and witnessed our services. AASAI has pledged its support, and also act as a US chapter patron for TRUST. TRUST has agreed to present specific proposals to AASAI, on an as needed basis, for funding and/or in-kind support. AASAI intends to review these proposals and support the TRUST towards specified causes as approved, after such review and as approved by the AASAI Board. TRUST and AASAI have signed a MoU in this regard.

To begin with Aasai has donated 1 LCD projector to TRUST in order to support the TRIMAS project and has approved to sponsor the GhoShala project: A vocational training project for the patients in TRUST' Shanthivanam.



GhoShala - Cow rearing and Gobar-Gas plant project sponsored by AASAI
Under this project, 10 cows will be bought and maintained in a cow shed with water bed facilities. The cows will be raised by Shanthivanam patients (as the daily chores to take care of the cows will provide a vocational training & activity to the mentally disabled , but physically able residents of Shanthivanam).The cows in the Ghoshala will provide sufficient milk to the Shanthivanam residents and the surplus milk shall be sold in the neighborhood to generate income to the TRUST. The cow dung & wastes depleted from the Ghoshala will be fed as input for the Gobar-Gas plant to generate cooking gas for the kitchen at Shanthivanam.

Generous Money donations or sponsoring one or more cows for this project are solicited in order to take this project to the ultimate success – providing a vocational training activity for the disabled inmates, fulfilling the milk consumption, generate considerable income through selling surplus milk , and become self-sufficient cooking gas for the kitchen at Shanthivanam residential facility. The long term goal is to rear as many 50 cows.

School for special children - Little Angels School, Bombay

Founded in 2002 by a former flight attendant, Jahangir Afshari, focuses on the challenges posed to young children with multiple disabilities. Independence, confidence, and education are the main goals of the organization. The school encourages the Indian society to accept and help these little angels to bloom and afford an opportunity to be themselves and learn to find their own place in the world.

The Children are taught communication skills, pre-reading and writing skills, and tolerance. Occupational therapists, psychiatrists, and speech therapists help these students fight their problems on a daily basis. The education course is not by any means restricted to the classroom. Nature walks, weekly trips to parks, beaches, and swimming lessons are also part of their curriculum.

Today, 40 children are learning and growing here; 75 more are on the waiting list. It's time to think bigger about this movement, to help change our attitude, to persuade people that individuals with mental disabilities can be contributing members of society.

Rehabilitation of abandoned children - Deena Seva Sangha, Bangalore

Many poor children are routinely abandoned by their parents and with no place to go, they haunt the streets of many of the metropolitan cities in India. They easily fall a prey to undesirable members of society who use them for thieving or begging and other abusive purposes.

AASAI is now involved in assisting the street children by taking them away from the streets and arranging for their boarding, lodging, and education. Towards this end, AASAI is supporting Deena Seva Sangha, a non-governmental organization in Bangalore that is willing to undertake this work.

Deena Seva Sangha (DSS) was started in 1930 by a band of Gandhian workers and continues to provide services in the areas of education, health care, and rehabilitation of orphan and destitute children. They serve a population of 20,000 in various slums in and around Bangalore.

DSS currently owns about 60 acres of land in Pestalozzi Village on Magadi Road (15 kms. from Bangalore) where it runs an orphanage housing 50 children (ranging in ages from 6 to 16) in four cottages. The younger children attend an elementary school on the premises (Grades 1 through 7) and the older children attend a high school located nearby. During weekends, all the children assist in a vegetable farm on the premises.

Through AASAI’s efforts 10 children are now housed in three cottages currently lying unused with DSS. They attend school and integrate with the existing children in all their activities. DSS also has an equipped workshop on the premises, which is not in operation. AASAI plans to negotiate with an ayurvedic drug company to grow herbs in the village with the help of these street children and others as a way to provide vocational training and also generate funds for future projects in this village.

Home for destitute elders - Sri Poorna Mahameru Trust, Chennai

With the blessings of Paramacharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Sri Poorna Mahameru Trust, had its humble beginnings in 1993, taking care of 5 elders with a mere contribution Rupees 501 and mainly depending on “Pidi arisi” (handful of rice) collected from the neighborhood. Today the Trust is located in a two-story building in Subham Nagar, Old Pallavaram, Chennai. Now, the Trust houses 60 men and women, most of them suffering from some handicap or illness. There is a woman whose mood changes with the waxing and waning of the moon. There is a 40 plus year old man, with the mind and intellect of an eight-year-old child. There is also a 35 year old girl, with both eyes blind and a vacant brain, all because she was in her mother’s womb when there was an air raid and a bomb fell near the mother in a trench during the Indo - Pakistan War of 1965. There had been elders suffering from dementia and similar psychological problems, who were given all the care that could be mustered before God called them to his bosom. The Trust provides all the wards free board, lodge, clothing and medical aid; in short the Trust helps the elders to spend their advanced years in comfort and with dignity and self respect.

The Trust has a trained nurse (herself a widow and a needy person, with a physically and mentally challenged teen age daughter) who lives in the Home and attends to the medical needs of the elders. The trust has made special arrangements with several local hospitals to treat them free of doctor fees and room charges. The medicines are, however, purchased by the Trust. Charitable and social organizations like Sankar Nethralaya, Lions Club, Rotary Club, Inner Wheel help in conducting medical camps at the Home premises.

The Trust has put up an 830 sq. ft. dyana mandapam. Here, bhajans and pujas are organized periodically to Lalitha Maha Thripura Sundari. All festivals are observed, bringing cheer to the elders in the Home.

The Trust spends Rs. 40,000 per month on the elderly destitute

For the benefit of those who can afford to pay, the Trust has 16 modern rooms for use by senior citizens who need physical, moral and logistic support in their old age, when their own near and dear are not staying with them any longer. The income generated this way is used to maintain the Free Home.