Hope Center

Our Work

At present ThiruOli Charitable Trust mainly works in rural villages surrounding Coimbatore city in Tamilnadu, India.

Mr. Prabu and his team have been tirelessly ‘Bringing light into lives’ for the past 10 years.

Where do we work?
The trust is located in a village called NallurVayal which is around 30 kilometers from Coimbatore on the foothills of the Siruvani hills in Tamilnadu, India.

Who do we work with?
We mainly implement welfare initiatives for the underprivileged community. This includes adivasis as well as the poor families in NallurVayal as well as the surrounding villages.

The Adivasis(tribals) have inhabited the Siruvani forest (30 Kms from the city of Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu in India) at the foothills of the Siruvani hills for many years. They have gradually moved out of the forest and now live in small towns called ‘pathi’. 1 pathi houses around 30-50 adivasi families. Within a 2 km range of the hills there are 7-10 pathis. Hence nearly 2000 adivasis inhabit this area.

Who are the Adivasis?
Adivasis are the indigenous people of India. 95 million strong, they form 8% of India's population. They have a long history of discrimination. In the Indian society they are considered even lower than the "Untouchables"/Dalits. They form the poorest, most illiterate, most trafficked, most internally displaced due to big projects such as dams and mines, and most neglected social group in India.

What do we do?

Our Current Initiatives

Initiativesto foster Education:

• 1. We help the adivasi (tribal)as well as the underprivileged children living in the surrounding villages withuniforms, school bags, slippers,school fees, notebooks and other stationery items.
• 2. We provide free tuition assistance for the children twice a week.
• 3. In order to bring about awareness about India’s rich cultural and heritage, we teach the children songs and dance and help them put up street plays and cultural programs to educate their own communities.
• 4. We conduct counseling programs for the youth regarding drinking alcohol and drug abuse.
• 5. We also conduct competitions which help foster the mental and physical growth of children.

Assistance to Anganwadis

(Anganwadi is a government sponsored child-care and mother-care center in India. It caters to children in the 0-6 age group. The word means "courtyard shelter" in Hindi. They were started by the Indian government in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services program to combat child hunger and malnutrition.)

• 1. We have provided basic amenities like table, chair, mats, educational charts etc to the nearby Anganwadis.
• 2. When they have requested, we have helped them fix their roofs etc.
• 3. We have planted saplings in their vicinity and educated the children about the importance of plants and trees.

• 

Healthcare Initiatives:

• 1. As adivasis venture into the forest, often they are attacked by elephants, snakes, cheetahs and other wild animals. We have provided medical help during those times.
• 2. We have helped provide medical help for other ailments like cancer, heart attack, TB etc. We take the needy to the nearby government hospitals and follow up with them on the medical advice given.
• 3. Once every fortnight we visit the surrounding villages to find out if there are any sick people who need help. We take them to the government hospital and follow up on the medical advice and the medicines recommended. Depending upon the financial resources available to us we help out people who need specialized medical care and are unable to afford it.
• 4. We periodically conduct programs to educate women about nutrition and child care.
• 5. We have counseled and helped pregnant women during pregnancy as well as during child birth.
• 6. We periodically conduct programs where we bathe the adivasi children and then educate them and their families about the importance of personal hygiene, cleanliness, health and nutrition etc. During such programs we also clean their neighborhood or adivasi settlement.
• 7. We also conduct competitions for children in which their vision is tested. If anyone is found who needs help then appropriate advice is given.

Community Development Initiatives:

• 1. During monsoon, many(especially in the adivasi community) are usually out of jobs. At this time we help them by providing rice and other food items.
• 2. We distribute clothes to them periodically.
• 3. We counsel them with their personal problems and have helped some out of their drinking addictions as well.
• 4. We have found that street plays are very effective in educating the illiterate communities about important issues. Hence we reach out to them using street plays, songs and dances.
• 5. We usually train the adivasi children to perform in these street plays making it more effective to reach out the message to their community.
• 6. We periodically do poor feeding.
• 7. While planting saplings in the surroundings we also conduct programs for them to understand about the importance of trees and effects of afforestation and deforestation.
• 8. Through street plays we have educated them about discrimination, unity in diversity, the struggle for Indian independence, freedom fighters etc.
• 9. During some of our programs we have had guests talk about how people have overcome discrimination, on government help can be taken when bitten by a snake or wild animal etc.
• 10. We have helped with the marriages of people who could not afford it.
• 11. We have adopted some families in the surrounding villages. They are single parent families. We help them financially by helping with their house rent, groceries, uniform and stationery needs of their children etc. We also counsel and encourage them during their difficult times.

What would we like to do?

Our Future Initiatives

Education Projects:

We would like the children to benefit from value based holistic education.

• 1. We would like to be able to sponsor more underprivileged children and help them to complete their education.
• 2. We would like to be able to have painting workshops, summer camps etc. for the adivasi children.
• 3. We would like to have life skill training programs like tailoring, embroidery, candle making etc. In the long run this may help in generating self-employment opportunities for the rural womenfolk.
• 4. We would like to reach out and help more Anganwadis.

Healthcare Projects:

• 1. We would like to conduct health camps in the surrounding villages.
• 2. Many government schools have requested building of toilets. When we have enough financial resources we would like to undertake such projects.
• 3. We would like to conduct programs regarding some frequently occurring sicknesses like eczema, back pain, rheumatism, blurring vision, typhoid, diarrhea, malaria etc. and help communities to recognize symptoms and take preventive action.

Community Projects:

• 1. We would like to conduct street plays to communicate to the adivasi families more fully about their rights and how to get them.
• 2. We would like to generate more employment opportunities for the people in the surrounding areas.