PROGRAM

During the year 2005, MAKAM, which is a member organisation in a network called LAMP NET undertook a needs assessment study in 15 most backward villages of Melmalayanur Block, Villupuram District to study the issues and problems of the persons with disabilities.

After undergoing a rigorous training at People's Craft Training Centre, Kariyandhal village, Thiruvannamalai District, MAKAM was able to work in close collaboration with government to develop complementary and supplementary programs for the persons with disabilities

CBR Programme Highlights:
• An active member of LAMP NET, a network f grass-root organisations working for the inclusive development of persons with disabilities.
• Initiated 15 community-based Self Help Groups among the persons with disabilities in promotion of their advocacy skills.
• Linked the PWDS with the existing services available with the Government and Non-Government Organisations.
• During 2005 to 2008, MAKAM was able to reach out to 1425 persons with disabilities through various community-based rehabilitation services.

Implications for Rehabilitation
• Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) made a lasting difference in the life of persons with disabilities.
• CBR improved the participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities in the family and in the community.

Save the Dalit Adolescent Girls from Abuse

Child marriage is a serious human rights violation and one of the most pressing development concerns in the world today. Commonly defined in international law as marriage under the age of 18, child marriage disproportionately and negatively affects girls who are more likely to be married as children than boys. Child marriage compromises girls’ dignity as they are often forced in to marriage usually at a very early age when they do not have the maturity or are not given the freedom to consent to marriage. It is steeped in harmful traditional norms and practices passed across generations, which has a debilitating impact on the lives of girls, their families and society at large, and perpetuates a generational cycle of poverty. The more recent phenomenon of “love marriage” among children is also being witnessed in some countries.

Apart from being a human rights violation, child marriage has grave consequences for girls’ sexual and reproductive health and often results in early pregnancies with increased risks for young mothers and their children. Child marriage denies girls their childhood and crucial education and employment opportunities. It makes them vulnerable to sexual and other forms of physical violence and abuse in the domestic setting. This is particularly happening among the dalit girl children. Despite these adverse consequences, the practice persists with impunity. This is a matter of grave concern and it requires serious deliberation and action.

The Challenge

Child marriage – a marriage or union before the age 18 – has a disproportionate impact on girls. It curtails their education, compromises their health, exposes them to violence and traps them in poverty, undermining their prospects and potential. Marriage is often linked to patriarchal attitudes towards girls, including the need to safeguard family ‘honour’.

The Solution

MAKAM sees ending child marriage as essential for girls’ empowerment and well-being, and MAKAM works with partners to tackle this rights violation wherever it occurs. MAKAM does so by focusing on those girls who are most at-risk, promoting their education and mobilizing those who influence families and wider society to give girls more control over their own lives and prospects.

MAKAM addresses child marriage through programming across sectors to tackle the many aspects of this harmful practice, particularly in marginalized communities.

MAKAM's programmes draw on robust evidence, informed by the views of marginalized girls and boys, to empower communities and strengthen the systems that act as a safeguard against child marriage, such as education and social protection. MAKAM recognises that ending child marriage involves tackling the many challenges that perpetuate this rights violation, such as gender inequality and discrimination, lack of education, and poverty.

MAKAM's work covers three key areas:

• support for development and participation of adolescent girls through continuing life skills education and tracking their progress;
• extending counselling services to help adolescents at risk of, or affected by, child marriage, particularly girls, and
• raising awareness of the need to invest in and support girls, and shifting the social expectations that stifle their prospects.

MAKAM is committed to social development issues including the welfare and empowerment issues of persons with disability. MAKAM is engaged in designing and running of community based projects to protect the needs of disabled. Since 2008, MAKAM in association with other organisations and Government Departments continues to work for the rights of the Persons with Disabilities.

One project called "NAMMAAL MUDIYUM" (WE CAN), a holistic development project for all the disabled in Melmalayanur Block area where there are around 14524 disabled are living within the general population. MAKAM is networking with other similar organisation to promote their rights.

WELFARE SCHEMES FOR THE DIFFERENTLY ABLED collaborated effort with Government:

Issue of Identity Cards.

Issue of Welfare Board Identity Card

Special Education through Special School

Scholarships for the Differently-abled students

Readers Allowance for the Visually Challenged students

Inclusive Education for Children with Disability,

Free Bus Pass to travel within the district

Maintenance Grant to Severely Disabled persons

Maintenance allowance for Muscular dystrophy

Maintenance grant to Intellectual challenged

Supply of Aids and Appliances

Marriage Assistance Scheme

Vocational Training Programme

FIANCICAL SCHEMES

http://www.nhfdc.nic.in/

Sanitation is one of the basic determinants of quality of life and human development index. Good sanitary practices prevent contamination of water and soil and thereby prevent diseases. The concept of sanitation was, therefore, expanded to include personal hygiene, home sanitation, safe water, garbage disposal, excreta disposal and waste water disposal.

The overall purpose of good sanitation is to provide a healthy living environment for everyone, protect natural resources such as surface water, groundwater, and soil, and provide safety, security, and dignity for people when they defecate or urinate. The importance of hygienic toilets lies in an effort to prevent diseases which can be transmitted through human waste, which afflict both developed and developing countries.

In 2017, India was reported to be the country with the highest number of people practicing open defecation: 524 million people or 40% of the total population. Sanitation is linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio. Lack of toilets poses serious health risk. Around 2.6 billion people worldwide live without a toilet. They relieve themselves in latrines, rivers, buckets or behind the next bush - and risk their health. Diarrheal diseases and Cholera can quickly cause death.

Efforts of MAKAM

EcoSan Project

The year 2008 was announced as the International Year of Sanitation by the United Nations. In response to the issue related to sanitation, few like-minded organisation came together to discuss on the topic of sanitation and found it appropriate to start a movement for sanitation among the people at the grass-root. As a member of Tamil Nadu EcoSan Initiatives, MAKAM has equipped itself to address the sanitation related issues in the community with the technical support from EcoSan Services Foundation, Pune. After the training, with the support of UNICEF, India, MAKAM was able to construct UDD Toilets which addresses poverty and human dignity.

Toilets for Human Dignity

In the year 2019, MAKAM got an opportunity to reach out to the dalit communities in the urban slums. It is constructing 100 toilets for the benefit of 600 members living in sub-human conditions.

 

Access to adequate housing and basic amenities, such as drinking water, is essential for human development. In developing countries, like India, the access is unequally distributed and the poor remain deprived of adequate housing facilities. Millennium development goals for India aim at improving access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities by 2015. India is progressing towards achieving these goals, however it would take hundred more years to achive the same. Moreover, improved access to these basic amenities may be concentrated in relatively higher income households.

Lack of affordable low cost housing and poor planning encourages the supply side of slums. The Millennium Development Goals proposes that member nations should make a "significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers" by 2020. MAKAM’s Housing Initiatives

MAKAM has been able to meet the housing needs of the dalit communities in the urban slums. Through low cost housing, MAKAM was able to reach out to families that had no house to call their own. As on 2018, it was able to reach out to nearly a hundred families through different partnership and support.

India will have the world's youngest population by 2020, with an average age of 29 years, and with 13 million people entering the workforce each year. The survey taken nation-wide showed that students completing primary or even secondary schooling are extremely low, closing pathways to senior secondary or higher education. While vocational skills could be a short-term solution, only 2% of the workforce in India is currently formally skilled, leaving the vast majority of youth without the skills, knowhow or networks to enter the workforce. This leads to large scale unemployment or under-employment, even as industries are unable to fill their job vacancies.

MAKAM Tailoring Training Institute

In 2005, MAKAM launched Tailoring Training Institute, its vocational skilling arm. The objective was to train youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds (age 18 to 25 years) and provide them with employable skills, coupled with access to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.

During the period 2003 to 2016, MAKAM was able to establish and run a Tailoring Training Centre for the Adolescent Girls and Young Women. As many as 273 girls and young women benefitted from this project.

MAKAM Typewriting Institute

During the period 2006 to 2009, MAKAM was able to establish and run a Typewriting Institute for the Dalit and other Youngsters from the low income group. As many as 435 youngsters benefitted from this project.  

Building Peace through Education & Dialogue

Our purpose is to promote sustainable peace among the different groups and communities by transforming violent conflict through dialogue, negotiation, mediation and reconciliation.

Peace Education to Children

MAKAM evolved a pedagogy on Peace Education based on Gandhian Values for school children. This is being implemented for children in the community in and around Chetpet town with the help of teachers and volunteers.

Course Content:

Meaning of Peace: Umbrella term of all positive values to build a positive personality;

Meaning, Nature and Concepts of Peace Education

Aims and Objectives of Peace Education;

Status of peace education in the curriculum and its relevance in present global scenario;

Different sources of peace: Philosophical, Religious, Social, Secular and Psychological;

Classification of Peace: Individual and social; positive and negative peace;

Method of Peace in Mind: Learning Positive Lessons from Negative Experiences; and

Peace as a concomitant result of Human values.

Youth for Peace

MAKAM promotes the development of ancestral cultural practices based on customary law and to practice inter-religiosity to avoid religiously motivated violence. MAKAM promotes a culture of peace and mutual understanding among faith leaders and among followers of different beliefs. Out of many, MAKAM ensures to stay one and united as people created in the image of God. It contributes in building bridges and crossover religious and traditional limitations to be fully helpful to Mother Earth and to every human being. Part of our daily effort is reaching the people through reconciliation which is the key to social acceptance and mutual understanding. MAKAM strengthens the bones of unity and solidarity among people of different religions and beliefs.

India's culture and diversity make it a land of unlimited opportunities. Each village, town, city and state has so much to offer in terms of the heritage, architecture and experience that can be explored. India's tourism potential is huge. MAKAM encourages Volunteers / Social Thinkers / Philanthropists to visit places and people for learning and partnership.

Social tourism refers to participation in events, programmes and activities by different social groups who are otherwise excluded due to social, financial or reasons.

Individuals, families, friends and groups interested to visit places and people and learn the culture of people are welcome. We shall be able to provide adequate accommodation and spend time to take you to places and connect you with people in the target area. Boarding expenses cannot be borne by MAKAM but will be able to arrange a person to provide you food for which actual charges will be collected.