Siragu Montessori School
Siragu, a Montessori inspired innovative school, is located at Palavedu Pettai, via IAF Avadi, Chennai. We facilitate a life of dignity for children who have been marginalized and/or need our help, and try to prevent the occurrence of child labour.
Siragu is a community based school. It originated in and is sustained by a community that includes people in and around Palavedu Panchayat, and street children in and around Chennai. At present we provide education up to third standard.
The idea and motivation to start the school came about when individuals in the community identified lack of education as a significant obstacle to improving their lives.
Siragu provides Montessori inspired innovative education to children from families who have been begging, scavenging, farming, pig farming, manufacturing or working in brick kilns for generations.
At Siragu we encourage students to learn and express themselves independently, and thus bring out their inherent potentials. In our child-centered and child-friendly school we recognize that children are persons in their own right. We listen to them, accept them, recognize their emotions, and learn from them. We pay attention to each child, identifying her/his potential while at the same time letting the child take its own path to fulfilling these potentials.
• a school for slum dwellers
• a school for first generation learners
• mainly started for rehabilitation of begging children.
Education System of SIRAGU
• Child friendly
• Freedom to think and act
• Activity based
• Work sheets system
• Opportunities for more site visits and knowledge, exposure tour
• World Peace Prayer, Yoga and Meditation is the daily routine
• Developed innovative education concept and written our own books
• (Book on CLIMATE, HEALTH & HYGIENE, AGRICULTURE, HUMAN ANATOMY & KITCHEN)
• Children go for Village visits, visits to Panchayat Office, nearest Post Office and gain
practical knowledge about their learning
Recognized by
• Visitors, Volunteers, Individual Donors, Corporate Donors & General Public of India
• Students & Professors of Pacific Lutheran University, USA
• Students & Teachers TJD International School, USA
• Social work students of Graduate School of Social Work, Boston, USA
• MEDIACORP a Singapore based company selected our school as best school in Asia
and made 10m documentary movie – Asians of the Year 2006 and telecasted through
their CHANNEL NEWS ASIA, SINGAPORE
• Wings of Evolution –a movie on Siragu global education concept
won best documentary film award in USA
• TV Media, Paper Media, Magazine Media
• Suyam Charitable Trust wins acclaimed international award - 2nd place in the Akzo Nobel
Community Program Best Practices Competition 2007. Across a selection of 2500 volunteers,
500 projects, 45 countries Suyam Charitable Trust was awarded 2nd place for its
New school facilities provided at one of its projects - Siragu Montessori School
Chennai
Bharathamatha Nursery & Primary School
Suyam Trust, through Barathamatha Primary School, endures to provide a friendly and compassionate atmosphere to them by way of various student friendly educational methods to ensure the growing enthusiasm in them not only to prevent dropouts in the secondary education but also to enable them be interested to pursue higher education.
Women Empowerment Program
Poor & Destitute Women are well motivated to gain confidence to overcome challenges to lead their life, learn to excel their tailoring skills and earn.
Projects at Nagapattinam
• Suyam Activity Center
• Suyam Digital Library
• Interactive Science Learning Program
Suyam Home
Apart from the activities of primary education, a small home by the name Suyam Home is being run for the children of different ages who are faced with various kinds of challenges in their lives.
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH
To prevent child labour, and to prevent drop outs in Corporation Schools in Chennai, Suyam:
• Conducts Nadaipathai Pookkal Program for rag pickers and street children (and their parents/caregivers)
• Conducts free tuition centres in and around Chennai
• Adopted Corporation Middle School, Amman Koil Street
• Conducts educational and awareness programs in Corporation High and Higher Secondary
Schools in Chennai
• Provides monetary support for higher education for 'deserving' students
Nadaipathai Pookkal Program (Flowers of the Pavement)
In 1999 we adopted around 50 families who have settlements in Palavedu Pettai but have been residing for thirty years in pavements around Kilpauk Water Tank. These families have been forced into begging to make ends meet due to various social problems. The community in Kilpauk and Palavedu Pettai now have access to education, child care, medical facilities (including family planning counselling), counselling for de-addiction and resolution of family problems. We also seek to empower them through employment generation (self and external employment) schemes and by setting up self-help groups.
Our main activity in the community has been education for the children.
After much work, patience and interaction with the community in Palavedu Pettai, some families asked us to help educate their children. In 2001 we admitted two boys and one girl to SET Anne's School of Excellence, a local school of good standing. The remarkable academic progress shown by these children, since their LKG, motivated many more parents in the community to want their children to be educated. That year we admitted seventeen more children to the school.
More and more parents started wanting to send their children to school. But with the cost of education for twenty children reaching Rs. 85,000, and inspired by the academic success of Nadaipathai Pookkal children, we all (Suyam, the community and some well wishers) decided to start Siragu Montessori School. However, this school is not only for children from the Nadaipathai Pookkal Program but included children from other marginalized groups in the community as well. Our teachers, trained by Suyam, are from the community itself.
At present, five children from the program are still in the SET Anne's School of Excellence.
Free Tuition Centres
We have two tuition centres in Palavedu Pettai and one centre at Suyam office to provide free tuition to economically deprived students from 1st to 12th standard. We plan to extend this to a minimum of 20 centers in the coming years.
Corporation Middle School , Amman Koil Street
We have adopted the Corporation Middle School, Amman Koil Street to deal with the problem of school drop out in this school, in a concerted manner.
We encourage students to complete at least 8 th Std. We provide them with additional informal educational inputs, and train students in creative learning, arts, computers and scientific methods.
In this school we also counselled a few drop outs and got them back in the school.
Corporation High and Higher Secondary Schools
We deal with problems of school drop outs and teenagers in Corporation schools in Chennai.
In these schools we academically train students, encourage them to pass their exams, provide personal counseling, and talk to them about the importance of education and making use of the facilities available to them in the schools.
We conduct training camps where we stress study skill learning and personality development training for these students.
We get 'role models'-people who have overcome difficulties in their lives-to give talks to them, as well.
Post Secondary Education
We identify higher secondary school students who lack monetary support but show potential for higher education, and provide for their education.
EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMS
Siragu Montessori School is involved in projects that help adults in Palavedu Panchayat change their means of livelihoods, and thus their lifestyles, to be able to lead lives of dignity and respect. This is a way of making the school the center of community development, and of involving parents in the school and in their children's lives and education.
Our empowerment projects include Self Help groups, Push Cart program in Shastri Nagar, Palavedu Panchayat, and Tailoring training in Palavedu Panchayat and Mint, and Phenyl Making training in Palavedu Panchayat and Veerapuram.
AWARENESS PROGRAMS
Suyam tries to create awareness about social work, student involvement in social work, social issues especially those relating to beggary, and self awareness among students, social workers, physically and/or mentally challenged people and the general public.
We also celebrate various occasions to spread social awareness.
OTHER RELATED ACTIVITIES
HEALTH RELATED ACTIVITIES
We organize health camps in various urban, rural and slum areas.
The camps include medical camps, blood donation camps, cataract operation camps, eye donation camps, and nutrition and hygiene camps.
We also visit and counsel AIDS patients.
ASSISTANCE TO THE PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED
We assist, guide, and refer people to various organizations after identifying their specific needs. We also donate materials like hearing aids and wheel chairs besides providing educational support.
CHILD LABOUR
We provide a bridge course to 50 students, during the six months that these children spend with their parents in the brick kilns in and around Palavedu Panchayat. We also rescued a child working in handloom industry in Kanchipuram, and another child working in steel factory in Wall Tax Road.
ECO-FRIENDLY WORK
We plant trees, undertake ways to preserve water and recycle waste water, and try to promote organic farming in Pakkam, near Thiruninravur.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
We assist many people in need, in whatever ways we can, as and when we come across them.
VISITS AND DONATIONS TO HOMES
We visit homes, spend time with people-children and old people-put up recreation and awareness activities, and donate materials (such as medicine). We have visited SC/ST Hostel, Anandam Old Age Home, Little Hearts, Little Drops, Mahalakshmi Foundation, Nethrodhaya, Anbagam, Sevalaya Old Age Home, Bala Gurukulam, Anna Anadhai Illam, Amar Seva Sangam (Tirunelvelli), Jeevan Gnanodhaya (Chengalpet), Rajiv Gandhi Handicapped Rehabilitation Home (Pondicherry), Vishranti Old Age Home and Seva Chakra.
NETWORK WITH OTHER NGOs
We network with NGOs to expand our reach. We work with Life Trust, Udhavum Ullangal, Help First Society, CIOSA, Banyan, Anbu Ullangal, Monday Charity Club, SET Sornammal Educational Trust, Sneghidhan Trust, Ecomwel, Olcot Memorial School, Asha for Education, Mahalakshmi Foundation, Help to Live, I Volunteer, Maps, Alpha to Omega, Mother India Foundation, Nandhini Voice for the Deprived, CSIM, Anandashram(Kerala), Sudar, Kaingarya, KCRDS Kaveripakkam, Nesam, R. Parthiban's Manidhanayam Mandram, Shristi, Raja Rathinam Educational Trust and Kamal Hasan Narpani Mandram, Akanksha Foundation (Mumbai), Bhoomika Trust (Chennai), Helping Hands (Pune), Access Aid Foundation (Cochin, Kerala), Sivasakthi Kakkum Karangal (Chennai).
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Activites
