Other Projects:
Child labour has been a major social problem in the districts of Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam. NAMCO focused on elimination of child labour in its operational areas through a multitude of approaches, the first one being the sensitization of communities and other stakeholders of the magnitude of the problem and supporting such affected communities with means to overcome this challenge. NAMCO has been implementing a number of projects in response to this social issue.
• Protection of Children from Child Labour Project: Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts witnessed large scale migration of adolescent girls to Tirupur, a textile town in Tamil Nadu. NAMCO realized the need to ensure that businesses are sensitized towards the harms of child labour and they refrain from hiring children for work which will, in turn, discourage parents and children to choose money over education. This can be made possible only through large scale campaigns and events for educating stakeholders.
Towards this objective, NAMCO partnered with TdH, Netherlands and ‘SAVE’ and implemented a project in 2017 – 18 to stop migration of adolescent girl children. Through this project, NAMCO covered the entire Thiruvarur district mounting massive awareness drives. It reached out to
o 7817 people providing them awareness on unsafe migration and child labour;
o 1950 school children and 3058 vulnerable children in 40 villages
o 646 anganwadi teachers
o 40 Village Health Nurses and 40 PRI members
o Promoted 40 children clubs
o 121 children rescued from Tirupur textile units and re-enrolled into schools
The project resulted in building awareness in communities against the perils of unsafe migration and thus reported reduction in such migration and child labour incidences.
• Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL): CACL is a national level network that fights against child labour in any form in any nook and corner of the country. It works with the goal of eradicating child labour from the country. NAMCO has been functioning as the convenor for Thiruvarur district since 2018. As convenor, NAMCO has been continually organizing district level campaigns, and conducting capacity building programs for NGOs in the district, besides taking several other related initiatives.
• Student Development Centres: Rural children lack facilitative environment at their homes to pursue their daily reading, home assignments and learning. They also need assistance for their learning, this is especially so for the slow learners. In partnership with AIMS India Foundation, a US based charity, NAMCO has been running 36 such Student Development Centres in three districts – Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Cuddalore – since 2013. These centres have reached out to more than 1240 children from remote villages, who are enrolled and directly benefitted. Besides support for learning their regular curriculum, the centres also offered moral education, confidence building measures, and life skills. This has resulted in reduced drop outs and enhanced learning outcomes of such children.
• Strengthening Teaching Capacities of Schools: Many schools lack adequate number of teachers so that they are able to maintain a healthy students-teachers ratio. This puts pressure on the teachers as well as students and results in inadequate learning process. NAMCO has partnered with AIMS India Foundation and supported a school in Agarapettai village in Boothalur block of Tanjore district to overcome the issue of inadequate number of teachers. NAMCO extended support to have four additional teachers for the Adi Dravida Government Higher Secondary School, where a majority of the children are from the marginalized SC and ST communities.
• Improving Infrastructure in Schools: Very often lack of basic infrastructure in schools leave a lasting negative impact on the children. For example, when schools lack separate toilets to protect the privacy of girl children, many of them drop out. Access to drinking water also forms the basic infrastructure in schools. NAMCO is cognizant of the importance of equipping schools with such basic infrastructure. In partnership with AIMS India Foundation, NAMCO extended support to 5 schools (1 in Dindigul district and 4 in Vedaranyam block of Nagapattinam district) for improving the basic infrastructure including construction of toilet blocks, provision of furniture and construction of new class rooms. This project was implemented in 2013.
In 2015, NAMCO partnered with NABFINS (NABARD Financial Services) and extended support to three schools in Keevalur block of Nagapattinam district. Through this project, the schools received toilet blocks and RO water plants.
• Support for Pursuing Higher Education: For many poor children higher education remains a dream. They are unable to continue their education beyond their school level. Most often, they are forced to take such decisions due to economic compulsions. NAMCO partnered with SEEEDS, a US based charity to extend sponsorship support for higher education for poor children, especially the children of Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu. The children were supported to join professional courses like engineering, medical etc. NAMCO has been extending this support since 2018 and has covered about 100 students per year. NAMCO has reached out to more than 500 students to date. NAMCO partnered with the Tamil Sangam in Missouri, USA and extended sponsorship support to 10 students in 2018 for pursuing their higher education.
NAMCO has been functioning as the ‘collaboration’ agency for Thiruvarur district since 2015. CHILDLINE is a 24 x 7 toll free number that receives calls from anyone from the district for helping the children in any form of distress. Despite the efforts of many stakeholders, even in the present times, there are families that force their children into marriages or drop them off from schools and enrols them into some form or industry for labour; on the other hand, due to not so conducive environment in homes, children turn to notorious practices of using drugs, alcohols and get addicted; they are lured by fantasies and runaway to cities and towns that are completely alien to them and get trapped into anti-social networks. Some children are forced into begging, some into bonded labour and a few are sexually abused. NAMCO has been involved in rescue, rehabilitation and repatriation efforts. As the CHILDLINE ‘collaboration’ agency, NAMCO is at the fore front of any such reported incidences of violence against children. On an average, NAMCO has saved more than 400 – 500 children in a year.