Over 5000 Mothers attended the 2020 Conference. It was a wonderful success. Here are some glimpses of the event. More to follow!
Nandri’s Mothers convention
Our Convention for approximately five thousand Nandri Mothers will take place on 25th January. The theme of this years event is “No Water No World”. Nandri is working to build awareness of climate change amongst our mothers and are implementing environmentally friendly projects in our groups, such as planting trees.
The Nandri Convention is a wonderful opportunity for our mothers to get together and share experiences, network and receive awards for their achievements in the past year.
Celebration of love and Sharing
Just before Christmas, we had a Celebration of Love and Sharing in the lovely rural village of Sivaji Nagar. In this village we have 600 mothers who are part of our Nandri community. They are very enthusiastic and highly motivated members of our organization. They are delighted to be a part of Nandri and they and their families have benefited in many ways.
The mothers were thrilled to be a part of this happy celebration and so grateful to Nandri for bringing such positive changes to all their lives.
Green lake movement
On Children's Day we started a special project called Green Lake Movement. Each Nandri child planted two trees on the banks of the lake at Indiravanam village. These trees will be nurtured by the children under our guidance. Children who are part of this movement will be given educational support and motivational training and learn the importance of looking after our environment for future generations. They will become leaders of our new initiative to make our lakes more green.
Nandri gives loans to Sri Lankan mothers
In October, Nandri distributed ₹270000 to nine impoverished mothers living in a Sri Lankan refugee camp at Abdullapuram, Vellore.
These loans will help the mothers to start a small business and generate income so they can keep their children in education. Nandri has transformed the future for these deserving families.
Visit by UCDVO students from Ireland
Month of June was a special month in the history of Nandri. The presence and various activities done by the UCDVO from Ireland was the highlight of the month. Through the media, Nandri’s name has become more popular and lots of appreciation from the well wishers really makes Nandri to feel proud of its activities. It is a boost for Nandri to continue its selfless services to the community.
- Cultural Exchange Visit by UCDVO students from Ireland
The long waited dream of visiting the students from Ireland has come true on 8th June. The one month cultural exchange visit of UCDVO students along with Nandri Nimh (Person responsible for Social media) from June 8th to July 6th was a memorable event In the life of Nandri. The students were warmly welcomed by the Nandri staff on 8th June in a traditional Indian way. This group of students were supported by some student volunteers from Tiruvannamalai district who were supported by Nandri in perusing their higher studies.
The following four major activities carried out by the UCDVO students.
a) Renovation of Government Primary School at Indiravanam village
b) Starting of Home Work Clubs in the villages
c) Strengthening of Nandri’s Mothers Groups
d) Exposure to organic garden.
Training of the leaders of the mother's groups
The second phase of training to the leaders of the mothers’ groups was conducted at Kasthampadi village on 14th September. Twenty mothers from14 groups attended the training. The purpose of the training was to motivate the members to follow the system and the procedures evolved by Nandri for its effective functioning. The training was facilitated by Joe and Jerald. The training was mainly focusing on maintaining the account notebook and the individual passbooks. All the formats applying for various financial assistance was clearly explained to them. The members actively participated in the training and they clarified all their doubts in filling the formats. The Chairman urged all the members to create an enabling environment for the overall development of the children.
Mothers’Training at Kasthampadi Village
Status of Home work Clubs
Home work clubs were started by the UCDVO students during their stay last month. The interest shown by the UCDVO students was amazing and as result, we could see that the home work clubs are still very much active. Sr. Deepika was appointed as a Coordinator for these Home Work Clubs and she is visiting the centres along with Mr. Jerald and encouraging the children. We can see that the children are repeating the songs and the games taught by the UCDVO students.
Name of the centre
Total no. of children
Indiravanam
60
Samathuvapurum
44
Gangapurum
46
Kollapallur
42
New Colony
15
Children from Home work club at Kollappalur
Nandri supports Kamatchi through Teaching College
Kamatchi and her family live in Udayarkuppam Village. Her two sisters are mentally handicapped and her mother was the sole breadwinner for the family. Following an accident, She was no longer able to work and support them. The family were left in desperate poverty without enough money for food. Kamatchi saw that the only way she could help her family was to continue her education and get a degree and a well payed job. Her ambition was to become a teacher but with no money to go to college or even feed her family, her situation looked hopeless.
Nandri heard of the family’s plight and with their help the poverty stricken family were rehoused to provide suitable accommodation for their special need children. Nandri also organised the finance for Kamatchi’s college course. She is well on her way to becoming an excellent teacher and is so grateful for the help that Nandri has given her and her family. They now have hope for a bright future thanks to Nandri and the generosity of our donors.
Jansi becomes a nurse!
Jansi Rani, from Thalaiyampallam, is one of the Nandri Children we have supported throughoutmsecondary school. She was an excellent and ambitious student and was determined to break the cycle of poverty for her family by getting a good education and a well paid career.
Jansi’s mother is a widow and was struggling to feed and support her 5 children. Two of the children have serious medical problems, which put a further financial strain on the family. Nandri gave Jansi a loan so she could complete her 3rd level education and become a nurse.
It was a day of tremendous celebration for her family and the village when Jonsi graduated. She is presently working in a Delhi Hospital and is able to send money home to her mother and siblings. Nandri gave Jonsi a secure future and and as a result, a better life for all her family.
Thanks to the support of our kind donors, Nandri is able to change people’s lives for ever.
Leena continues her degree with the help of Nandri
Leena Therese comes from a poor family in the rural village of Elayankanni. Leena, a bright and hard working student, always achieved top marks in her exams. After completing secondary school, she enrolled in a college to study for a Medical Electronic Engineering degree. She managed despite financial difficulties, to successfully complete two years.
She was heartbroken when due to her Dad becoming very ill, she had to leave college to help support her poverty stricken family. Leenas career looked like an impossible dream. Nandri heard of Leenas plight and agreed to pay the next two years of college fees which will enable her to graduate and fulfill her ambition to become a successful Electronic Engineer. With the help of Nandri and the generosity of our donors, Leena Therese will have a secure and successful future and be able to support her family.
Continued Success of our Child Education Programme
Over the last number of years, Nandri has granted a total of 518 ‘Support Higher Education’ loans to children, so they can continue their education to 3rd level. In 2018, 179 children were given life changing financial loans so they could stay in education and achieve a degree leading to a rewarding career. This enables the graduates to support themselves and their families.Nandri recognizes the importance of early education and supporting our very young children. As well as encouraging 
and enabling our older children to progress to higher education, we also run after school children’s clubs for the younger Dalit boys and girls. To date we have 10 Child resource Centers catering to the needs of our children.When their school day ends they go to the after school clubs. They kick off with some fun traditional games to energize the children before starting their homework. Many of their parents are illiterate and so unable to help their children with completing their homework assignments. One of the many benefits of our children’s clubs is our remedial teachers are always on hand to help them.WIth the wonderful educational support these young boys and girls are receiving from Nandri, we expect to see tremendous success with our children continuing on to 3rd level education and well paid, fulfilling careers. This was something impossible for a child from an untouchable Dalit family until Nandri, with your help changed everything and gave them a bright future.Without the support and donations from all of Nandri’s supporters we could not change these young peoples lives, 
giving them not just hope, but the practical financial help they need to achieve their goals in life. On behalf of all our children, I would like to say a big thank you!
Update on our sanitation programme.
To date, our sanitation programme has provided a total of 58 families with new toilets for their homes. The toilets are a very basic outdoor construction. The Indian government will provide 50 per cent towards the cost of building but without a loan from Nandri the families would be unable to afford the balance.It is normal in poor areas of rural India for families to defecate in the fields beside their homes. The loans from Nandri to help build toilets has changed the lives of these impoverished people and given them the opportunity to live cleaner and therefore healthier, more dignified lives.We are continuing to educate our mothers and children about the importance of hygiene to prevent diseases, teaching them to wash their hands frequently to prevent the spread of germs. The children are bringing the lessons they are learning in our Resource Centers home and sharing good hygiene practices amongst the rest of their families!Nandri would like to say a big thank you to our supporters of this project. You are helping us transform the quality of these families lives forever.
Nandri bringing joy to our families at Christmas
Christmas should be a season of happiness and joy but for our poor Dalit mothers, struggling to survive, this is not the case. This year, we wanted to make Christmas extra special for them. In previous years we gave our mothers sarees but this year our group leaders suggested we give small gifts to celebrate Christmas and recognise our mothers achievements in the past year.
It certainly lifted their spirits! They sang and danced and were delighted with the presents they received. The spirit of Christmas and the joy of giving brought happiness to all during our celebrations.
A Jar Full of Coins and a Family’s life transformed for Ever
With the coins this kind donor found in a large jar in his home, he sponsored a cow for one of our impoverished mothers. 
Nandri provided the mother with a micro finance loan enabling her to buy the cow which will give her family food, in the form of dairy products, an income from the products she can sell and in the future, a calf which will further boost the income of the family. Because of the increase in income, the children will be able to afford to continue their education. What a difference a cow makes in the lives of our poor families. This mother will never forget how a jar full of coins changed her life.Our generous donor called his cow Aideen after a family member! What would you name your cow?
It’s our business to make Nandri work!In Nandri, we believe that it is very important for our Donors to understand how our charity works, how it benefits our families and where their money is being utilised. The tightly organised day to day running of our charity is key to its success. The CEO of our partner organisation in India once said to me "Fred this is not a business it's a charity". I answered that unless we run it like a business with professional procedures and systems then it will not prosper.We implemented Salesforce, one of the best corporate CRM systems in the world, and a number of user licenses were made available to us free of charge by the company. We are extremely grateful to Salesforce. It has enabled us to manage the records we have on thousands of our Nandri mothers in our non profit.
In January 2012 we started a micro finance programme to give a loan to a mother to buy a cow or other income generating asset. The mother can repay a loan within two years and all repayments are immediately re-loaned to another needy mother in the group.In 2013 we realised that many of our children were dropping out of education at 17 or 18 years of age. We then started to give them loans to go to college. This immediately doubled the number of our children who go to 3rd level, as many families could not previously afford the upfront fees, despite the fact that this was only in many cases less than €100 per annum. Most of our mothers only earn €20 a month.We could not manage these programmes without the appropriate technology and systems and Salesforce is the most important system which we use. Today we have quite an extensive, complex database, with details of over 3,500 mothers, 2000 children and 700 current donors in our systemEvery month almost Rs.2 million is processed through the Salesforce system. Within two weeks of each month end we receive a set of management accounts which have been audited by a local chartered accountant in India. In Ireland one of our directors who is also a chartered accountant produces monthly accounts for Ireland and reviews the accounts from India.Our mother's pay 1% per month interest on the reducing balance and this is mainly used to fund the third level loan program. Our mothers also pay a membership fee of about one rupee per day. This income is enabling us to grow the organisation and to achieve a level of self sustainability in India.In February 2016 we opened our Nandri centre. It is a 6000 ft.² building. The opening was attended by over 3500 mothers and children and local dignitaries. It has put us on the map locally and has enabled us to apply for grants from the Indian government to run training programmes for our mothers and children. It cost about €300,000 and was fully paid for by a small number of donors from Ireland including some directors. The building is used for training courses and administration and for regular meetings of over 600 officers of our 200 mothers self-help groups.Most of our 3500 mothers are members of the low caste so-called untouchable Dalit community. We found it difficult to rent rooms for meetings and offices. Our mothers are treated like travellers in Ireland, who find it hard to rent rooms for weddings or other celebrations. Our 3500 mothers proudly wear their Nandri saris and are proud to be part of our organisation.We are a small organisation and our revenue for the current financial year is likely to be around €200,000. We only have one part time employee in Ireland who works 10 hours a week. Our future strategy is to grow our micro finance fund. Since 2012 we have issued loans of over €900,000. The repayments are used to issue about 50 to 100 new loans every month.In 2016 we were approved a grant of $50,000 from the Lions Clubs International Foundation #LCIF. We had to come up with $17,000 matching funds and much of this was provided by Lions Clubs in Ireland. This fund has already being used to provide loans to 350 widows and single parents.On top of our micro finance programmes, our mothers, who meet every month in groups of 15 to 20, are also encouraged to save. They save about Rs.100 per month which is the equivalent of a days wages for them. This money is reloaned to their group colleagues. They also charge each other a small interest-rate. Our mothers proudly show off their passbooks which record their subscriptions, savings and loans. We have set up the necessary paperwork systems to enable them to manage these loans and savings themselves. We employ eight fieldworkers who attend all the meetings to ensure that all our procedures and systems are maintained.
We want our sponsors and donors to know that we make their money go far. Every €400 donation will change the life of a family who receive a loan to buy a cow. Two years later the same money will benefit another family and so on. A donation to Nandri is a gift that keeps on giving. Our future plan is double the size of our loan book. Within five years we hope to have 10,000 mothers of which over 5000 will have received a life changing loan.
Nandri CHild Resource Centres Changing the Lives of our Little Ones
Nandri has set up 10 child resource centres to cater for the overall support and development of our children. All of these centres are looked after by remedial teachers appointed from the local villages. Children come to these
centres after school and start their evenings with some traditional fun games in order to relax after their long days of learning at school. Their evening studies are supervised by the teachers, who help them with their homework, practice reading and writing skills, and also organise singing and dancing classes which the children thoroughly enjoy!In this wonderfully positive atmosphere, the children’s education, talents and overall well being is being nurtured. I
was privileged to visit one of these centres in January, and enjoyed seeing their school work and a wonderful display of singing and dancing from the most happy, smiling little people. It was a joy to see.As most of the parents of Nandri’s children are uneducated, they would be unable to help their sons and daughters with their school work. They are so grateful to Nandri Resource Centres for ensuring the very best for their children. They see the difference it makes in their school grades and how happy the children are to participate in the after school programmesNandri Resource Centres are helping the future generations of Nandri families fulfill their dreams and escape poverty through education.
Nandri Centre Bringing Laughter Joy and Happiness To Our Children
The Nandri Foundation is committed to the education and development of our children. All our activities are carefully designed to protect and promote the best interests of the child. An important part of that is insuring that our young people learn how to play together and have fun! In the Nandri Centre, we have set up a playground for the children with lots of equipment that they can enjoy after they spend time in educational classes. Towards the end of their day, the children are so excited to go outside and the sound of their laughter fills the air! It gives them a chance to forget their difficult empoverished lives and just be children having fun with their friends. After a recent training programme for local children, you could feel the excitement in the air as the day came to an end and they could finally run to the playground! In the words of Jerald, our Chief Operating Officer “The children forget everything and they are in their own world. The campus is filled with laughter, joy and happiness”. When the evening came to a close, the children were sad to tear themselves away from the playground and leave - but the Nandri centre will always be a place that our young people will remember with love, a place of positivity, education and fun and they will long to return time and time again. 
Nandri Micro Loans Continue to Change Lives
In July, 52 Nandri mothers received life changing micro finance loans which would help them start their own business or give them the finance to send their children to third level education. This programme gives a lifeline to our impoverished mothers and their families. As the mothers pay back their loans each month, these repayments enable us to lend to more than 50 new mothers the following month. The cycle of success of our micro finance loans continues to grow and flourish bringing hope and a future to new families each month. NANDRI, changing lives.
Drumsticks making an educational and nutritious addition to Nandri!
Nandri Drumstick plantation
Our workers are busy removing the weeds at the drumstick vegetable plantation yard at Nandri Center. Drumsticks, also known as Moringa, are vegetables loaded with valuable minerals, healthy proteins and essential minerals, making it a very healthy food. It is used as one of the ingredients in sambar, a type of stew. Being high in nutrients and tasty in nature, the leaves and pods of this green vegetable possess blood purifying properties and it also acts as a potent antibiotic agent. We have created this drumstick yard to help train our agricultural students who come to Nandri to learn how to grow and tend crops. In addition, we will showcase the plantation as a model as we bring forward our initiative to introduce allotment farming to our Nandri families. It is mostly women who do the weeding and even if they work along side men, the women get lower remuneration for their work. 
The physical work done by these workers will bear fruit within six months and we will use the drumsticks in Nandri Centre in the delicious South Indian food we will prepare for our guests and participants in our training programmes.