Site Visit Report: Senchiamma School, Thiruvallur District, Tamil Nadu

Site Visit Report: Senchiamma School, Thiruvallur District, Tamil Nadu S. Yegna Narayanan (sygn at gmail dot com) R. Ramanathan (maragatham93 at gmail dot com) April 21, 2016 Following the directions of Suganthi and Murali of Bharathi Trust, we drove from Chennai and reached the Oothukottai main road and the Senchiagram village intersection around 11:00am. Murali was waiting for us at the intersection and we followed him to the village. Within 10 minutes, we were outside the school. There were 25 kids, 4 mothers and the Mariamma Teacher. They gave us a warm welcome with a flower and beautiful smiles. We sat inside the class room in a circle along with the teacher. Kids could recite Tamil alphabets and numbers from 1-100. They also sang some short songs. They had charts about animals, birds and vegetables on the wall. They were all very well sweet and eagerly listened to everything we said. Teacher and her helper showed us the kitchen. It was very clean and they had prepared mixed rice with vegetables in a big pot for lunch. Next, we met Sarpam Union State Leader Munuswamy. He has also played a key role in the roof construction for the school. They have also constructed a water tank right next to the building. The concrete roof is a great relief to these young kids and babies during these summer months. School is able to provide 1 good meal for lunch and 1 snack like dates or peanuts. They are taking care of 32 kids from 6 months to 6 years and Mariamma Teacher is preparing them to go to the nearby Government school for elementary grades. The families in the village were affected by the December 2015 floods and they all have re-built their simple homes now. We spent about an hour inside and outside the school and left the school as they were waving their hands and saying goodbye.

Aug ‘14

April ‘16