All in a year’s work.......just a few of our recent activities
Helping women to help themselves through self-help groups, vocational training, guidance, and assisted micro-credit schemes. New programmes and facilities are being created to cater for even more women who are seeking to improve their own and their families’ lives.
Multi-purpose centres – provide facilities for vocational training for girls and women, guidance for girls who have dropped out of school, tuition and homework supervision for school children and a focus or meeting point for the local community.
‘Klean Kitchens for Kids (KK4K)’ has provided many more pre-school day care centres with a safer alternative to indoor wood fires for cooking.
Anbumalar special school for mentally challenged street children. In June 2007 the centre was already caring for 63 mentally and physically challenged children (20 of whom are resident at the centre).
A group of ‘friends’ visited India in January and have returned with touching and vivid accounts of their experiences of visiting some of our projects and meeting our partners in and around Chennai.
In the last year our partners in India have helped hundreds of children to access education in many different ways construction of school classrooms, provision of teachers, homework support groups, toilets for girls, nutritional snacks, uniforms....
The Merieux Foundation dispensary and medical centre on the site of Anbumalar II was inaugurated in November 2007 and is treating 40 to 50 patients per day.
Find out more about the above, click here (Incredible India, Pongal 2008)
Closer to home....
Our Gala Dinner in November 2007 was the highlight of a busy year’s fundraising. Attended by more than 220 guests, it was a memorable evening which raised over 40,000.-CHF
The Committee of Friends of India has decided it is time to look ahead; by reviewing the structure of the organisation and developing a three-year strategic plan we hope to be even more able to respond to the needs of the communities we work with in India.
Most recent News:
01.06.08
Building of the new Cattle Shed at the Amalarakkini School for the Blind in Arani!
A Taste of India, our Journey January 2008.
Sixteen Friends of India supporters travelled to Chennai on 13th January 2008 to visit our latest projects. A great success!! more here
What is FOI and what does it do?
Friends of India (FOI) is a charity active in Tamil Nadu, in Southeast India, it was established in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2001, by Pam Walsh OBE, with mission to:
- improve the educational infrastructure and the learning environment, particularly for girls
- motivate children and their parents to continue learning
- empower women through social development programmes and vocational training
FOI implements its goals by funding a range of focused projects such as:
- building additional classrooms for schools
- establishing community vocational centres
- paying for teachers and trainers
- installing sanitation and clean kitchens
- providing uniforms, nutritional snacks, and learning materials
- sponsoring vocational and life skills training
- encouraging self-help groups for women
- financing women's projects through microcredit
FOI works closely with partner associations in India, by that means ensuring essential supervision and follow-up projects. Our primary partners are the Society for Upliftment of the Economically Backward (SUEB) and the Tamil Nadu Foundation (TNF)
