Education and acquiring skills
Children's Groups
Young Girls Groups
Young Boys Groups
Women's Groups
Men's Groups
Representatives from each group will form the Sangam, a legal association to
take up responsibilities of the development of the community. The Sangam, essentially
a "self-help group", will also be facilitated by outside resource
people and Sarvadhana staff.
Such village associations have been formed in nearly 50 villages in Tiruvannamalai
district.
Before supporting the formation of Sangam associations, Sarvadhana makes a
preliminary study about the village: Who are the people? What resources are
to be found? What are the features of the area? What are the important community
issues? What are the problems and strengths of the community? Their socio-cultural
patterns?
As an entry point, Sarvadhana organizes, Shramadhana camps to help build a psychological
and social infrastructure within the community.
Shramadhana means sharing one's time energy, knowledge, experience, wealth and
physical labor to help and improve the living standard of the community. Basically,
Sarvadhana gets in touch with the leaders and the active members in the community
and ask them to help organize the camps.
Initial discussions will be held with the community members and Sarvadhana representatives
to identify their pressing needs and problems of the community. All the members
in the community will be encouraged to participate in the Shramadhana camps.
The camps can be two days to a weeklong. Villages may chose to repeat the experience
several times
Sarvadhana estimates that up to date, nearly 1000 Shramadhana camps have been
held.
The aim of the Shramadhana camps
o Practical work: building a road, repairing or cleaning village school premises,
building a community health center, a common meeting place, cleaning drinking
water wells, repairing the bore-well, etc.
o Gathering after completion to share knowledge and information, and to highlighting the local issues.
o Identifying what resources and talents people in the village have.
Trainings
Sarvadhana promotes various kinds of grass root level trainings with the aim
to improve knowledge and skills. 75% of the contents are practical applications
and 25% are theoretical knowledge. Different kinds of training methods have
been used depending on the participants and the theme of the training.
So far, Sarvadhana has conducted the following trainings:
o Social Awareness training
o Community leadership training
o Literacy training
o Community health care training
o First-aid-training
o Shramadhana training
o Savings & Credit training
o Income generation training
o Women empowerment training
o Community co-operative training
o Panchayat raj training
o Resource mobilization training
o Project planning and management training
o Inter personal skill & counseling
The trainings may ranges from one day to one month's duration. More short-term
trainings than long-term trainings have been conducted so far.
Sarvadhana functions as resource organization for groups like Tamil Nadu Voluntary
health Association-Chennai, Literacy mission, Panchayat raj of the local Governments,
The Bridge Foundation - Bangalore, SCAN-Tamil Nadu, Cooperation & Human
Development, SWASCO-Sweden, DANIDA & Efter skol of Denmark, AVAN- Japan,
and Sarvodaya -Sri Lanka.
So far, more than 5000 young people, and 12000 community members have undergone
Sarvadhana trainings.
Vocational skills
There is a great need for vocational skills amongst people in the local community.
The knowledge and experience gained helps people to earn an adequate income.
o Agricultural skills
o Livestock management
o Water management
o Environmental protection knowledge
o Carpentry
o Masonry
o Electricity
o Motor mechanism
o Engine repairs
o Electronics maintenance
o Home science
o Tailoring
o Community shops
o Handy-Craft
o Metallurgy
Instructors with specific skills and experience train participants, who were asked to pay a nominal fee. The facilities used so far have the capacity to accommodate 15-50 participants. Duration of the trainings ranges from 15 days to one year. Some of the vocational skills have been supported by donor-organizations, but most have been self-financed and self-managed.
Education and acquiring skills
Education is of prime importance to all living beings, giving the required knowledge
and the experience to lead a good life.
Sarvadhana looks at education in to two ways: formal education and non-formal
education. Various institutes, both private and governmental, have carried out
formal education. The Non-Formal Education promoted by social organizations
and the government. The need is large, but the available resources for non-formal
education are very limited. This is largely due to the lack of resources and
too few committed groups working for non-formal education.
Sarvadhana tries to strengthen the formal education at community level, with
the close cooperation of local education institutes. In areas where there are
no educational institutes, Sarvadhana establishes, with the support of the community,
alternative educations.
Sarvadhana's main focus however, is to concentrate on non-formal education.
Sarvadhana Home - Life in the Village - Organisational Structure - The Aims and Objectives of Sarvadhana - Sarvadhana Project Summery