Crusade

Centre for Rural Systems and Development (CRUSADE), founded in 1991, works closely with communities to alleviate poverty and to bring about sustainable changes that improve the lives and livelihoods of the poor. CRUSADE works in around 200 villages in four development blocks of Minjur, Sholavarm, Ellapuram and Gummidipoondi in rural Tiruvallur district, north of Chennai, covering 250,000 population.

Ms. Rita Raj

Member

joined CRUSADE in 1999. She is founder of an NGO Manushi in Cuddalore district near Chidambaram. The organization has been providing several services in Parangipettai block, a coastal area. Manushi is well known in the area in treating person addicted to alcohol and drugs by running a De- addiction centre. Earlier she was working in schools run by an NGO in Madurai , experimenting on alternative teaching methods.