Veeranakunnam center opening on 24th March 2019

Veeranakunnam village: Veeranakunnam is a small village located in Madhurandagam block of Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu. There are 52 Irula families living in this village. 16 Pre-School children 30 School going Children are in the village and they are first generation learners as their parents are totally illiterates. Parents are very interested in children’s education, but children find it difficult to cope with formal school environment. Due to this frequent absenteeism, poor performance and lack of interest in education was observed. Since parents goes for work early morning, children quit classes and spend time in the bushes and forests catching squirrels, rats and small birds.

Some of the families in this village go to work in brick kilns in Pavunjur town during summer. They also take their young children with them when they go for work. Children play near the bushes and in sand. Due to this they are infected and suffer from many ailments, wounds and ulcers.

Only four children are studying in high school and all the others are in primary school. Boys go for work at a very young age of 13 years and girls get married at 13 years. Our additional support and motivation will help the children to concentrate more on their studies, learn life skills, and change their outlook of life that will help them to improve their living condition with self-respect and dignity.

We converted their small temple into a children’s center and started evening tuition two months ago. We inaugurated the center in a formal manner on 24th March 2019 in the presence of village leaders and parents. Village leader opened the center by cutting the ribbon. Village leader, irula community leader, guests from other centers lighted the traditional oil lamp. Children sang devotional songs, made dance performances and recitation of poems and so on.

Teachers from other centers viz. Sirupinayur and Thondamanallur came to motivate the parents. They shared about the functioning of their centers and asked the parents to make use of the opportunity to educate their children. Children from Thondamanallur came to participate in the function and made a beautiful dance performance to grace the occasion. Senior children from Thondamanallur shared their experience about their study center and explained that the center is like their second home and they learnt not only lessons but also gardening, making their area clean without plastics, making handicrafts and so on.

Children had lunch after the inaugural function.