Success Stories

Those who spent their formative years of childhood learning at the Child Development Centre in Irumaram are joining hands again to form a Community Youth Forum (CYF) to involve themselves in the community development activities.

They are currently studying degree level courses on the subjects ranging from IT, Engineering, English, Tamil, Commerce and Mathematics.

TNVT Secretary Mr.Vairam welcomed those members and was keen to provide career guidance and personal development support to progress in their career by bringing in suitable counsellors. Also to jointly work with the team on the village development efforts in the near future.

They have been supporting TNVT to organise various events such as Village Community Development Day for villagers and participating in Educational and Skill Development Workshops.

Child care has always been key focus for TNVT adopting holistic approach by involving parents, teachers, assistants, volunteers and the general community, and ensured all new born had been vaccinated, dewormed, vitamin supplements administered.

Dedicated Child Development Centre facility in Irumaram catered to regular medical check-up for early detection and treatment of any parasitic infections, malnutrition, hearing difficulties, eye problems, or any other congenital disorders. To monitor the progress of children’s health and cognitive developments, health workers and teachers at TNVT maintained anthropometric measurement records, which were reviewed periodically by medical team.

Child to Child Development Programmes were conducted for 6 years. Children from Child Development Centre(CDC) at Irumaram spent a day in a month interacting, by visiting, or hosting, with the children from government run pre-schools, which were very much under resourced due to lack of public funding. This programme gave an opportunity for the children to share their learnings and experiences.

Weekly primary medical clinic in Irumaram and Adavapakkam, and mobile clinics in over 10 neighbouring villages to the radius of 15 kilometers, reached over 10,000 people during the period of 20 years. Thanks to doctors with various specialisations have journeyed 20-30 km each way from Kancheepuram to village clinics on a regular basis.

Cancer screening programmes for women held jointly with the government hospitals on regular intervals helped early identification and referral to the hospital for treatment in time to save the lives.

Annual dental screening and treatment conducted in over 25 schools run by both governmental support and non-governmental organisations such as ASSETA for 5 years. In turn this helped the parents otherwise would have been unaffordable.

A team of medical laboratory technicians, with the help of equipment lent by the hospital in Kancheepuram, conducted blood tests in the village itself for the entire village population to identify the prevalence of filariasis, and the identified cases were treated immediately. Subsequently, laboratories were set up in the centres of Irumaram and Adavapakkam to run parallel to the weekly clinics, for which TNVT staff were trained on the laboratory techniques by the same hospital.

Preventive health clinics supported by robust community health awareness programmes stressing the importance of hygiene and sanitation for sustainability of health improvement practices.

Anaemia correction programme for children in 12 schools in Uthiramerur and Walajabad blocks, produced very positive impact after engaging in deworming, providing nutritional supplements and introducing healthy eating practices.