TEAM VISION CHILDREN’S HOME

“Tribal Education and Medicare Vision” (TEAM Vision) is a Christian Charity which was started in 1995 and was registered under the Government of Tamil Nadu Charitable Trust Registration Act (No: 154/96 of Bk 4). The principal goal of this organization as laid down at the outset is to “provide assistance for basic food, education and primary medical care for the poorest of the poor, the deprived and neglected people who live in remote, unreached villages and in deep jungles”.

REMOTE VILLAGES AROUND KODAIKANAL

There are about 40 villages around Kodaikanal. The inhabitants of these villages are illiterates and underprivileged. Many programmes of the Government do not enter into these villages because they are far away from the roads and are unreachable. Ignorance, poverty and illiteracy of these people add to this problem. When the TEAM Vision saw the struggle of these underprivileged sections of the society around Kodaikanal, a “vision to transform” came in the minds of its members to uplift the condition of these neglected sections of the society. The vision is implemented gradually through various programmes.

There are no good schools in these villages. Even if a small school is there in a village, the children have to walk for two to four hours a day to reach these schools. Health care facility is almost nil in these villages. About 45,000 people living in these villages.

In the beginning TEAM Vision has selected three remote villages namely Moongilpallam, Kombaikadu and Kadamanrevu, where the initial fade of work was done over few years where a trusting relationship was established with the Tribal people. The most inaccessible of these villages is Moongilpallam, situated in a valley that is 1450 metres (approximately 5000 feet) deep and four hours’ walking distance from Mannamanur, the nearest village approachable by road. It is a perilous route in between Mannamanur and Moongilpallam. One has to cross mountain cliffs, slippery rocks, streams etc., to reach Moongilpallam. The inhabitants are Muduvans and Palliyas. There are 24 families living there. They originally lived in caves. They were said to have been migrated from Manjambatty 200 years ago because of the fear of herds of wild elephants.

These visits were at regular monthly intervals. On these visits, free medical assistance was provided(medical consultation, oral and parenteral medicines). At first, there was considerable resistance and distrust on the part of the villagers. Over a period of many months and after numerous discussions with the adults in the village, these barriers were broken down. The importance of personal hygiene and literacy was emphasised. Basic arithmetic and letters of the Tamil alphabet were taught. Food was supplied when available to supplement their inadequate diet. Old clothes were collected from friends and distributed to the villagers once in six months. In 1998, a small kindergarten school was started in the village and children both small and older, attended the school. TEAM Vision paid the salary of a locally trained teacher.

(Tribal boys in the jungle) (Tribal lady on the plucking fruits)

CHARACTERISTICS OF REMOTE VILLAGERS

These people live in huts. They have a Local Leader who is selected by them. His word is law and, at times of disputes his decision prevails. They inter-marry only within the same tribe. If one of them marries some one from another tribe, he or she is excommunicated. Marriage does not entail any formal celebrations. For instance, there is no wedding feast. The relatives of the inhabitants of this village live in another village in the forest called Kodanthur which is about seven hours walking distance from Moongilpallam. They eat wild roots, maize, fruits from wild plants, honey and bamboo rice. Their limited income comes from selling bamboo products and lemon grass oil, with which they buy rice from other villages. The food is insufficient and often they starve as they cannot work outside and earn enough money to buy sufficient food.

These people are nature worshippers. They do not have a particular place of worship but have one area in their village that they regard as sacred. They visit this area during the harvest festival(Pongal) and the festival to celebrate rain(Mari), during which they sacrifice a goat. Regular worship is not a part of their life.

Diseases are, in their belief, manifestations of punishment inflicted by God. Therefore, they never visited doctors until TEAM Vision started Phase I of this project in 1995. Until then, they took only native medicines, for better or for worse. If an illness took on a serious turn, a witch doctor from the community was summoned for assessment and further treatment. If the witch doctor’s verdict was that the patient would die, food and medicines would be withdrawn and the patient kept in a small hut away from the other huts until he or she died.

Such primitive beliefs dominate the lives of vast majority of the villagers who are illiterate to this day. In order to transform the attitude of this neglected segment of the population and gradually bring them to the mainstream of society so that they have access to opportunities for betterment, one of the first measures is to try to make them literate.

Works Done by the TEAM Vision in 1995-2000

1. From 1995 onwards, a team of like minded people started visiting tribal villages named Moongilpallam, Pattiyakkadu, Pallangi Kombai, Vellagavi, Savurikkadu, vadagavunji etc., to provide free medical care and basic teachings about health and social awareness .
2. MOONGILPALLM: Later TEAM Vision has decided to select Moongilpallam as a pioneer village, which is situated about 4 hours walking distance from Mannamanur. The inhabitants of this village are deprived of all basic amenities like food, health and education.
3. RATION CARD: TEAM Vision prepared identity cards for all the heads of the families in Moongilpallam and encouraged them to apply for Ration Cards. We thank the Revenue Authorities and Civil Supplies Authorities for providing the ration cards to 15 families.
4. NEW HOUSING: We brought the pathetic condition of the huts in this village to the attention of the authorities. We thank the authorities for providing Tin Sheets for roofing. 18 new huts were erected in a new location in 1999.
5. ROAD AND LIGHT: The Forest Authorities were approached for repairing the way to the village because the location comes under the Forest Department’s Jurisdiction . They helped the villagers to lay stones on the tortuous way to the village. They also erected two solar lamps in this village because electification is not possible.
6. KINDERGARTEN SCHOOL: TEAM Vision started a kindergarten school in this village to provide basic education and bring awareness about education in 1998. 20 children were enrolled.

The Year 2000-2005

After continuous dialogue between the underprivileged illiterates of these villages and the TEAM Vision, the elders have agreed to send their children to school. But as there are no schools in the near vicinity, we had to keep them in a “Home” and educate them.

In this juncture the TEAM vision decided to start a “Home” for the destitute children at Kodaikanal. As per this on June 21, 2000 a ‘Home for the Destitute Children’ was inaugurated at 7/5 Anna Salai, Kodaikanal by Mr. T. Subbiah, R.D.O. Kodaikanal in the presence of the Tahsildar, Mr. Siddar Mahalingam. 19 children were admitted from Moongilpallam, Kadamanrevu and Kombaikadu. These three villages are situated about 30 kilometers from Kodaikanal. In this ‘Home’ free accommodation, food, health care and education are provided.

(Children with the Director, Administrator & staff in front of the Children’s Home)

Accommodation & Transport

The “Home” was started in a rented building in the beginning. But later a generous donor bought and donated a small piece of land for the construction of the “Children’s Home”. A building was constructed in this land in 2001. The building was extended twice to the present size. The children are now staying in the same building. Another building was constructed by the help of “World Orphans” in 2004 for the boys separately. 20 boys are accommodated in this building. In 2005 the TEAM Vision bought a van for the transport of the children to different schools. The children are studying in CSI Town School, St. Xavier’s Higher Secondary School and in Government Higher Secondary School, Kodaikanal.

(Children who are ready to go to school in the van)

The following are the names of the children and the villages they come from:

NO	NAME	AGE	SEX	CLASS	VILLAGE	Orphan/Semi Orphan/Destitute
1	N. Raja	18	M	X	Kombaikadu	S
2	B. Saravanan	17	M	X	Kombaikadu	D
3	R. Kumar	17	M	X	Kombaikadu**	D
4	T. Ganesh	14	M	VIII	Kombaikadu**	S
5	M. Suresh	13	M	VIII	Kombaikadu	S
6	T. Murugan	14	M	VII	Moongilpallam**	S
7	T. Veerammal	12	F	VII	Moongilpallam	D
8	K. Pandiyan	12	M	VII	Kombaikadu	S
9	M. Uthayakumar	12	M	VII	Kombaikadu	D
10	L. Pappayi	12	F	VII	Moongilpallam	O
11	N. Pattivel	12	M	VII	Kombaikadu**	D
12	M. Senthil	12	M	VII	Kombaikadu	D
13	V. Mageswari	12	F	VII	Kadamanrevu	D
14	N. Arumugam	11	M	VI	Moongilpallam	D
15	K. Kaliammal	11	F	VI	Moongilpallam**	D
16	R. Santhakumar	11	M	VI	Kadamanrevu	S
17	V. Mugugammal	13	F	VI	Moongilpallam	D
18	V. Jagadeesh	11	M	VI	Kombaikadu**	D
19	V. Chinnamani	11	F	VI	Moongilpallam	D
20	N. Nagu	10	F	III	Kombaikadu	S
21	M. Chitra	10	F	V	Kombaikadu	S
22	K.Chitra	10	F	V	Kombaikadu**	D
23	P. Katturaja	10	M	V	Kombaikadu	D
24	K. Nagaraj	10	M	V	Sembaramkulam**	D
25	M. Senthilkumar	10	M	V	Kombaikadu	D
26	S. Magudeeswaran	9	M	IV	Kombaikadu	D
27	M. Mariappan	9	M	IV	Kombaikadu	D
28	M. Karthik	9	M	IV	Kombaikadu	S
29	M. Vasanthi	9	F	IV	Kombaikadu	D
30	P. Kamatchi	9	F	IV	Pattiyakadu	D
31	M. Suganya	7	F	III	Kombaikadu**	D
32	V. Kamatchi	7	F	III	Kombaikadu	D
33	P. Ganesh	7	M	III	Kombaikadu	D
34	K. Ganesh	7	M	III	Kombaikadu	S
35	S. Rajapandi	7	M	III	Sukamanaikanpatty**	D
36	M. Viji	7	M	III	Kadamanravu	S
37	N. Pandyammal	6	F	II	Kombaikadu	S
38	N. Rajathi	6	F	II	Moongilpallam	D
39	M. Kaleeswari	6	F	II	Kadamanrevu**	S
40	P. Prema	6	F	II	Kombaikadu	D
41	P. Pradeep	7	M	II	Kombaikadu	D
42	K. Meenakshi	7	F	II	Kadamaravu**	S
43	V. Vasanth Kumar	6	M	II	Kadamanravu**	D
44	K. Raj	7	M	II