I:Thandalachery School building renovation
Thandalachery middle school in Gummidipoondy block has 153 students from class I to 8th most students are from very poor families.
For eight classes, there are only two school buildings (each with 40’ length and 16’ width) and the buildings are partioned to engage students in separate classroom. Still a couple of classes are held regularly in the tree shade inside the school campus.
Both school buildings were in a bad shape with leaking roof, broken windows and doors, cracked walls and uneven rough floors. As the classroom floor levels were much blow the ground level outside, during monsoon the classrooms were flooded with water causing much inconvenience and discomfort to students and teachers
As Thandalacherry is one of the Sponsored villages under VSP of SOTE, CRUSADE identified renovation of school buildings as one of the priority areas for the Sponsored village. At the request of school HM & teachers and the village Panchayat President, CRUSADE undertook renovation of one school building in 2022, repairing doors & windows, laying tiles for the classrooms and paving and plastering the portico.
During the visit of SOTE team early 2023 the teachers made an appeal to the visiting team for undertaking renovation of the second building. Back in UK, SOTE has been able to mobilize special funding for the work and provided the funds to CRUSADE to carry out the needed renovation.
During the summer vacation in May/June, 2023 CRUSADE has carried out the renovation, by relaying the roof, plastering of walls having cracks, repairing / replacing doors and windows and laying tiles for the classrooms. The face lift changed the overall appearance of the building. The panchayat has repainted the buildings.
Students and teachers are overwhelmed by this gesture by overseas sponsor and are very grateful to Salt of the Earth for this much needed assistance.
II : Building life brick by brick
Shobana 32 years old is mother of two differently abled sons Rohith Roshan 11 years and .Linith Kumar 9 years,both born with 80% Speech and Hearing disability.She takes both her sons to special school in Chennai city spending 4 hours of travel commuting between her residence and Chennai by train and bus Shobana’s husband is employed in a company and the only income earner for the family. Shobana feels worried that she couldn’t financially support the family as she takes care of her sons. They live in a small thatched mud house that was damaged and made them pathetic during rainy season.
Both the kids are members of the special group “Anbu” means “Love” formed in the village by CRUSADE and are supported Rs.1000 every year by CRUSADE for Children educational expenses. CRUSADE has earlier facilitated both the children with Hearing aid from Adinath Jain trust, Chennai. The family was also supported Rs.10000 from Vallamai Trust for medical expenseof the family.
As residing in the thatch house has become stressful, Shobana is constructing a concrete house and CRUSADE has supported Rs.50000 for the construction under Village sponsorship programme. She would love to return atleast part of the money which will go to Vallamai Federation for supporting needs of PwDs in other groups.
