News

SCAD celebrate their 25th Anniversary.

His Excellency the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Surjit Singh Barnala, was the guest of honour on January 10th in Tirunelvelli at an occasion to mark the 25th Anniversary of the founding of Social Change and Development (SCAD), our partner organisation. This was a great honour for SCAD as the Governor does not normally attend private functions.

Fifteen thousand people packed into a huge marquee in the grounds of Francis Xavier Engineering College to hear congratulatory speeches from the Governor, the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly and the Tamil Nadu Minister for the Environment. Dr Cletus Babu, the founder and Chairman of SCAD, welcomed and thanked thedistinguished guests.

Before the Governor's arrival Cletus and his wife Amali publicly honoured over a hundred past and present SCAD members of staff and highlighted the considerable achievements SCAD has made since it started in Cheranmahadevi with a handful of friends. It was fortunate that the celebrations coincided with the visit of Murray Frankland, Janet Elisita, Anne Walker and Dave Bradly, all Trustees of Salt of the Earth and they all attended the function. Cletus took the opportunity to publicly thank the Trustees and all Salt of the Earth supporters. He also asked Murray, the founder of this charity, to sit on the top platform with the Governor as one of the eight honoured guests.

Tree Planting Scheme
The tree planting scheme was very successful in 2009 thanks to a lot of hard work by SCAD staff and a heavy monsoon. Over 100,000 trees were planted and the objective is to plant at least the same again in the current year. We have just published a tree planting newsletter giving details of how the scheme is working which can be downloaded from this site.

Enviro Print UK, a printing company in the North East has committed to making a donation to the tree planting scheme for every purchase made. So if you have a print requirement and would like to use an environment friendly printer why not give them a ring on 0844 504 3732 or see their website at http://www.enviroprintuk.co.uk/

SCAD opens campus organic farm
The inauguration of the new fruit and vegetable organic farm on the SCAD campus took place in January. The ten acre plot was officially opened by Cletus Babu, the founder and Chairman of SCAD, in a ceremony attended by staff and college students and four Trustees of this charity. Cletus spoke of SCAD's commitment to organic growing and he hoped that the siting of the farm so close to the four further educational establishments on the campus would lead to many young people becoming familiar with and committed to organic growing. He went on to thank Mr Naga, the SCAD Project Leader, for his leadership and commitment to setting up the farm.

The produce of the farm will go to help feed the children at Anbu Illam, the school for children with learning and physical difficulties, and the 3,000 students who attend the various Colleges on the campus each day. The farm will take two years to break even and this charity is providing funding for it in the interim.

Salt of the Earth's 20th Birthday

See the latest newsletter for how far we have come in 20 years -- over £2 million raised in total!!

Revitalised and relaunched Plant a Tree Scheme

"Plant a Tree for 50p" is the latest scheme aimed at raising enough money to plant 120,000 saplings per year in the drought-prone areas of Tamil Nadu. See the newsletter for details plus how you can use the scheme to give a gift of trees.

Community-Based Rehabiliation (CBR)

The SCAD CBR team has certainly got into its stride and have been extremely active in reaching out to those with disabilities and their families in the rural areas. They have been able to start treatment programmes for around 700 new patients.

A further four Assessment Camps were carried out this quarter and the patients seen all suffer from various levels of learning difficulties and often have physical problems as well, some of them severe, such as cerebral palsy. Every patient now has an individually designed programme. Much of the work is carried out in the child’s home under the supervision and guidance of the specialist SCAD field staff.

SCAD staff were able to conduct four Orthopaedic Camps for those with physical difficulties to add to the two they conducted earlier in the year. Once again much of the treatment will be carried out in the child’s own home by the parents under supervision from the specialist SCAD staff.

To facilitate the home-based treatment, SCAD have conducted more training days for parents. Three programmes were carried out with 100 parents participating. It is encouraging that 85% of parents who attend these training days go on to get involved in giving treatment to their children.

The Training for inclusive education for Government School Teachers, ran three programmes with a total of 140 Teachers attending. This training is a key part of getting children with learning and physical difficulties more accepted into their village schools. The teachers had never before had any training in this area. As a result of the special training given to the State School Teachers ten village schools were identified as priorities to receive “barrier free” modifications and equipment. These schools are now equipped with ramps, walking frames and various other aids and appliances. This is a tremendous move forward in the aim of getting as many children as possible with physical and learning difficulties into the local primary schools and thus become more integrated into village life.

The CBR project has now purchased three sets of equipment for the three block offices that, along with the campus facilities, serve as the administrative centres for the 450 rural villages that SCAD serves. The equipment comprises of electrical (such as ultra sound therapy) and practical equipment (balance boards, overhead pulleys, wall ladders etc). This equipment allows for more intense treatment that cannot be provided in the patient’s village, yet is not too distant from home.

The SCAD team celebrated Disability Day in late December 2008 with a large function attended by local dignitaries. The aim of the event is to raise awareness of the plight of those with disabilities and will include more orthopaedic and assessment camps. 
 
Over 100 pregnant women assessed as being at risk of giving birth to children with disabilities  have attended training courses. These courses give the women valuable information on how best to take care of themselves during pregnancy and also provides medical treatment and check ups. There have been 21 deliveries in this group so far and, as yet, there have been no abnormalities in the children other than two who are under weight.

Cletus receives his Doctoral Degree

It was at the 25th Convocation of the Gandhigram Rural University, held on the 9th July 2007, that Cletus was awarded his Doctoral Degree. His research into the importance of educating the rural youth with vocational skills, entitled ëTowards the Comprehensive Framework of Training the Youth: An analytical study of Community Collegeí, took him five years. A huge amount of data was gathered as part of this study, which will be useful in shaping future initiatives for SCAD.

Cletus chose the Gandhigram Rural Univeristy for his study because of its commitment to the development of the rural society and the spread of Gandhian values. Mr. P. Chidambaram, the Union Finance Minister of India, and a prominent member of the Indian Government presented Cletusí degree to him.

Women's Self Help Groups' Exhibition

SCADís Women Self Help Group members recently put together an exhibition of their income-generating activities, in order to take advantage of a visit to Tirunelveli of Dr. M. Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Not only was it a wonderful display of the items which they produce, but it also demonstrated the increased level of empowerment which they have begun to experience through these Self Help Groups.

The Chief Minister was very impressed with their exhibition and promised them additional financial assistance through the banks.

Tree Planting Scheme in the Tuticorin District

A tree-planting scheme is well underway in the dry, dusty and largely saline areas of the coastal region around Tuticorin.  Much of SCAD’s work is carried out in the villages in this area and the purpose of this scheme is to improve both the land and the lives of the inhabitants there. 

Word of the project was spread through the Women’s Self Help Groups and the Farmers Groups, and from an initial 52 interested farmers, 12 have been selected to take part in the first phase of the project.  These farmers are gradually working their way through the various steps of implementing the scheme: training, land preparation, digging bore holes etc. and the current phase of tree planting was completed in October 2006.  The saplings include 10 varieties of fruit, fodder, medicinal and timber trees and this project has the potential to transform the scrub landscape of the Tuticorin region in future years.

Salt of the Earth has now enhanced this Tree Planting scheme to enable our more of supporters to take part. For a very modest amount of money invested in the planting of indigenous tree, it is possible to make a big impact on the communities with whom SCAD works.

Please read the articles in our most recent Newsletter and pass on our Brochure to friends and family.

Exam Success at the school at Cherenmahadevi

The Anbu Illam school for the physically handicapped children on the SCAD campus at Cherenmahadevi started as a primary school in 1990. Two years ago it was upgraded to a high school and has just put its first batch of 15 students through the Government exams. SCAD is delighted to report that 14 of the students passed the exams, with one girl achieving 404 marks out of 500. Both of Kavitha’s legs are affected by Polio and she cannot walk at all. In the past this would have meant that her prospects in life would be negligible, but she is a diligent student and is very proud of her results. Full story in the latest Saltseller newsletter.

The Opening of the Good Shepherd school

The Good Shepherd school in the Tuticorin district was officially opened earlier this year by David Friese-Greene during his visit to SCAD. The new building at the school was funded by Mark and Marian Tucker and has enabled numbers of students attending to increase to 750. David is a long-standing supporter of Salt of the Earth who produced our promotional video. For the full story please see the latest Saltseller newsletter.

World Women's Day

On March 10th 2007 SCAD hosted a huge celebration for World Women's Day at their campus in Tirunelveli. More than 20,000 women from the Self-Help Groups supported SCAD took part in the celebration as the focus of the day was on the economic empowerment of women. Over 50 stalls were organised by the women and the groups exhibited their products.

The whole event was a huge success and was attended by a number of dignitaries including three ministers from the government of Tamil Nadu.

View article in our latest Newsletter

Photography by David Friese-Greene

The President of India visits SCAD

2006 was a momentous year for SCAD.

In January Cletus was fortunate enough to have a meeting with the President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who said that he shared Cletus’ view that India can only be empowered through the vitality of its villages.  Shortly after this meeting, the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Manmohan Singh, presented Cletus with an award for outstanding social entrepreneurship at the National Economic Summit in Delhi organised by the Confederation for Indian Industry.  SCAD was one of only six groups in the whole of India to be selected for this prestigious award, which was given “in recognition of visionary, pragmatic and courageous contributions that significantly improve the state of the world’s people.

Then, on 22nd September 2006, His Excellency the President of India took time out of his tour of Southern Tamil Nadu to visit SCAD during his first ever visit to Tirunelvelli.  He opened the new block on the Francis Xavier Engineering College campus, which has been named after him and, following the speeches, students were given the opportunity to put questions to the President about matters that concerned them and their lives.  When asked what was important for the future of India, the President answered “Every branch of engineering and management are important.  We have to bring up the people living below the poverty line.”

Dr. Abdul Kalam was later introduced to some of the children from the Schools for Children with Disabilities and their head teacher, Princemol, told him about the aims of the project to rehabilitate these children so that they can live normal healthy lives and offer a positive contribution to society.

Green Energy Project

In January 2006, Salt of the Earth trustees who were visiting SCAD learned that the Indian government were offering considerable tax breaks on wind turbines sited on a large wind farm not far from Cherenmahadevi., if they were purchased and commissioned before March 31st.  Salt of the Earth supporters responded generously to an appeal for extra funding and SCAD has now commissioned one of these turbines as a means of investing in green power and also becoming more self-reliant in terms of finance.  The windmill generates approximately £15,000 per annum, which will be ploughed back into the projects and thus help the many thousands of poor and disadvantaged people in Tamil Nadu.

SCAD is now considering the possibility of commissioning additional turbines.

Photography by David Friese-Greene

Visit by Cletus Babu, Director of SCAD

Cletus had planned to visit the UK in April 2006 but this trip was postponed because of a very important Government inspection of the Further Education Colleges at SCAD.  However he arrived in August and enjoyed a very busy and productive trip, which included meetings with supporters in Leicester, London, Bristol and the Isle of Wight.  Despite being weary from travelling and chilled by the inclement weather, Cletus inspired both new and well-established supporters of Salt of the Earth and SCAD with his enthusiasm for the project and its future developments.