One Tailoring Training center each at Thiruvallur, Coimbatore & Karumanthurai
One Computer Training Center at Karumanthurai
Free Hostel for Tribal GirlsGrama Kalvi Maiyam
Saraswathi Vidya Mandir - Karumandurai
Science without humanity, commerce without morality and Education without character is useless and dangerous. With this view, to develop the Tribal children holistically an Elementary school by name Saraswathy Vidya Manidr was started in the year 1994 at Karumandurai, a typical Tribal hub in Salem district. Now the school has come up to standard VIII with strength of 350+.
20 Teachers are working sincerely in this man making assignment with a service mind taking a nominal honorarium.
Saraswathy Vidya Mandir - Navampattu
Another school Saraswathy Vidya Mandir was started in 2002 at Navampattu a small Tribal village of about 4000 population living in the small hamlets surrounding it, to cater the needs of Tribal students in that area. This primary school having a strength of 271 provides an atmosphere to the students learn and grow aligned with our culture.
Saraswathi Vidya Mandir - Vellimalai
A small Single teacher school is blossoming up now slowly with a strength of 22 students at Vellimalai a remote Tribal village. The first generation children have come to get educated as well as understand the richness of our culture. This school is functioning well.
All the three schools are affiliated to National Institute Of Open Schooling under the ministry of Education, Govt of India through Vidya Bharathi, an all India body working to provide Education, Bharatiya Culture and sense of patriotism to our students.
Free for Tribal Students
Deserving Tribal students are selected and they are put in a free hostel so that an all round development can be seen in them. Boarding, Lodging, Education and uniforms are provided freely to them so on, that their daily life will be moving smoothly along with their school education. First of its kind, The Sri Ram Hostel was started in the year in 1980 with 8 children at Karumandurai Salem . Now it is having the strength of 22. At present they stay in the classrooms itself and study. Better sanitation and hygenic food are given. New class rooms must be constructed so that the students can stay separately.
We have in total three hostels run to cater the need of the Tribal children
| Name of Hostel | Strength |
|---|---|
| Sri Ram Hostel Karumandurai, Salem | 22 |
| Gokulam Sevashram Thriuvallur, Chennai | 8 |
| Gokulam Sevashram Vadavalli, Coimbatore | 6 |
Grama Kalvi Maiyam
Vanavasi Seva Kendram TamilNadu conducts free one teacher schools (OTS) in interior tribal and most backward areas, covering the economically weaker sections of the people. A volunteer teacher is engaged to teach and also to inculcate good values of life in the minds of students. The teacher developes personal rapport with the students by spending quality time with them. They also strive to make school dropouts continue their studies. The course is conducted for l1 months in a year leaving the month May as vacation.
For two hours every week the students take a break from their text book and have an enjoyable session of songs, prayers and games so that they can get introduced to our culture. Children even do Gurupoojas on Guru purnima days and thus students learn not just their school lessons but also the important aspects of our culture.
In order to prove swami vivekananda's saying that A sound mind I's in a sound body, we inculcate in the minds of Tribal children a vigour to take part actively in sports and games.
Just like their villages are in high altitudes their achievements in sports and games are also high. Our tribal children from Tamilnadu took part in all India Kabadi match and came out successful as winners in the year 2008.
Limba Ram who won Silver medal in the resent Olympic is also from a tribal family.
Ranjith an all India winner in senior long jump is also a tribal brother from Tamilnadu.
In order to make our vanavasi brothers and sisters to live a healthy and a hygenic life, our Village Health Workers visit periodically nook and corner of every village they have selected for work and do all medicinal help to them. Any chronic case detected is referred to the regular hospital for treatment and follow up. A total of 130 Health workers render their services in 64 panchayats covering 9 districts. The feedback received so far from the beneficiaries has been very encouraging.
Apart from Village Health Workers visits, Vanavasi Seva Kendram and Ramakrishna Mission hospital Salem jointly conduct medical camps at karumandurai Salem periodically to reach the mass directly. In these camps doctors drawn from various specialties attend to hundreds of patients with different ailments. Thousands have been benefitted. Yearly not less than 6 camps are conducted and 3000 people get checked and medicated freely. It is useful and essential in these hilly regions where people have to walk several miles to reach a hospital or a Health center.
| No of camps In a year | 6 to 10 |
| worth of the camp | 1,20,000 |
The children of today will be rulers of tomorrow and they need to be equipped for that. Even though the tribal people are rich in Bharathiya traditional values, vanavasi seva kendram feels it essential to impart the same to the younger generation. It runs Balasamskar kendras for boys and girls to inculcate traditional as well as cultural values in them and infuse a sense of pride in our rich heritage. This helps the children to grow up as righteous human beings and patrioatic citizens.
No. of Balasamskar kendras 87
Deepa pooja (vilakku pooja)
Women are the backbone of each and every family. If they are rich in character and cultural values the whole family will be leading a good life. Based upon this high principlces Vanavasi Seva Kendram Karumadurai conducts Deepa pooja every year as a means to upholding our cultural values and to create social awareness in the minds of women. The pooja includes prayers for the personal welfare of the participatants and their families as well as for the good of the entire society.
The pooja is followed by special talks featuring social awareness to them. Nearly 900 women come by walk 7 or 8 km and take part in it.
Our vannavasi seva kendram never lack behind in giving assistance and relief materials to our brethren whenever they meet with natural calamities like incessant rain, drought and cyclone. They are provided with woolen blankets, dress materials and groceries.
Tribal children enjoy festivals like Deepvali, pongal too with the new dresses and the sweets donated by the well wishers.
Education
We run three Regular Schools - One Middle School at Karumanthurai, a Tribal Hub; One Elementary School at Navampattu village which is about 10kms from Karumanthurai, both in Salem District and an elementary school at Vellimalai, Kallakurichi District. 20 dedicated teachers- all of them are Tribals- are involved in teaching 500+ tribal students since last 30 years.
Free Hostel for Boys
As a part of uplifting the Tribal Community in the field of Education, we run Three Free Hostels for boys one each at Tiruvallur, Coimbatore & Karumanthurai of Salem District.
About 60 Tribal Boys are staying there and have their education along with the rest of the society.
Dedicated full-time wardens take care of all the needs of the hostel mates like Health, Education, Hygienic Food, Sports, discipline etc. Further many volunteers from the society support the educational needs of the hostel students with free tution, guidance etc and take part in our service.
Grama Kalvi Maiyam - GKM ( Gram Shiksha Kendra )
To reduce the illiteracy rate among the Vanavasi Community and to encourage the Tribal Students in learning their academic syllabus, we run more than 150 One Teacher Schools ( Ekal Vidhyalaya ) in Tribal Villages spread over 31 blocks in 15 districts of Tamilnadu.
Tribal boys / girls who had 10th standard or above are trained & run these part time schools everyday for about 3 hours each day. Besides academic syllabus, Yoga, Games, Moral Stories, Patriotic Songs etc are taught.
Along with the school going children, the adults also learn from the GKM.
Sports Centers
More than 58 Sports Center are run in 8 districts by us in which talented youth were identified and trained in Kabadi, Vollyball, Archary etc.
Annual competition among them is conducted and the winner is sent to participate in the All India sports competions conducted by Akhil Bharatiya Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram.
Bal Vikas Kendra
There are 63 Bal Vikas Kendras functioning in Tamilnadu to make the tribal children learn good behaviours, manners, to be true to the nation, their culture, by telling Moral Stories, Real Incidents, our Puranas & Itihas, the glory of the tribals our country, Desh Bhakti Geeths & Yogasan.
This has brought remarkable changes in their life.
Medical Center
Swami Vivekananda Medical Center is being run at Karumanturai, a Tribal Hub, in which an Allopathic Physician visits every week and treat the patients, who are all Tribals, for Free.
Besides consultation, medicines are also given for free for more than 300 patients every week.
Satsangh and Bhajan Kendras
Loss of Culture is Loss of Identity
Hence to save the Tribal Culture and protect their Tribal Identity of our Tribal Brothern, 62 Bhajan Kendras are functioning in 62 Tribal Villages in Tamilnadu.
It is much encouraging to see the level of committment in practicing and preserving their culture by all the tribal sects.
Village Health Workers
Since most of the tribals reside in deep forests and access to the Health Care facilities is very difficult due to the rough roads / No Road, with so many ups and downs, a kind of First Aid facility is made available to the Tribal Hamlets through the Gram Shiksha Kendra Acharyas, by providing some safe medicines after an intensive 5 days training programme through qualified medical professionals / doctors.
This helps the Tribal People to get immediate access to First Aid Medicines and they are advised / referred to the nearby govt hospital / Medical Facility in a day or two.
This helps the Tribal Populace in taking care of their health which they ignored earlier.
Women Empowerment
The Tribal Women are very hard workers who takes care of home as well as outside works for their livelihood.
A dedicated team of women workers of our organization provide Spiritual & Mental strength to the Tribal Womenfolk by conducting "Deepa Puja" & Moral Classes besides providing Health Tips / Counselling about the issues the women face.
Also special training classes / camps / workshops are conducted to the adolescent girls of age 12 to 18 about their Self Protection against the odds they face in the society, the need to keep their body and mind clean and strong, the need for continuing with their education, encouraging their higher studies.
More particularly, the girls who discontinued their studies are encouraged to continue their study and their parents are counseled to continue their daughter's study.