SIRAGU - HELPING LIVES TAKE WING


Children.. their smile, innocence, pure heart and thoughts, when deprived of mother's love and father's care tend to resort to the street. They become easy pries to the crime world. The inner sufferings of those children cannot be imagined by many people. If an omniscient exists, he it is, who alone knows it, but perhaps tells nobody!!. Uma runs Suyam, an organisation that listens, rescues and educates the street children and begging children.
Siragu - a unique institution, educational wing of Suyam, started in June 2003 was born from a deep desire to provide a platform for the upliftment of a traditionally downtrodden and marginalized set of people - the street dwellers and beggars. They live in very inhuman and unhygienic conditions. The principal wage earners are the womenfolk who can be seen at traffic junctions begging for alms. They normally carry babies to elicit more sympathy.


These people migrated from neighboring areas of Chennai city over 50 years ago and converged to this urban area mainly in search of a livelihood. This migration was driven by severe drought and resultant crop failures. Most of these people were marginally employed and lived in penury. A dream of a better life drove them to the city but the lack of specific skills forced them to beg on the streets and over generations this became the means to a livelihood. Their children were drawn into the "profession" naturally since they could draw more sympathy and get more alms. This led to a vicious cycle where the children had no option but to continue their existence with no hope of a better life. Until Suyam stepped in. The objective of Suyam was not to "force" progress on the community, especially of the kind that was not sustainable and thereby handicap the community even more. Suyam's intention was to simply provide a viable alternative to the children for a better chance in life to fulfill their potential.



Their first efforts at getting close to the community were met with suspicion and antipathy.The patience of the workers was finally rewarded when three children (two boys and one girl) were admitted into a local school (SET Anne's School of Excellence) in the LKG section. The progress of these children was stupendous. Within a few weeks they were talked about within the community and the natural instincts of parents caused more of them to come forward and permit their children to be educated. In the same year another seventeen children were admitted to the school.


The school now reaches out to a much broader section of the society, which would otherwise be deprived of any decent education in their lives. These would typically be children of brick chamber workers, commercial sex workers, handicapped people and other economically challenged sections of the society. It was decided to follow the Montessori style of education since it was most suitable for imparting the basic skills. The method enables children to grow to their potential and helps build creativity. The Montessori kits were very expensive but the vision was not to compromise as far as possible. The required kits were purchased and the school was started formally on June 8, 2003.


Uma can be reached at : Suyam, No.23, 2nd Floor, Laywer Chinnathambi Street, Kondithope, Chennai. Ph : 9444404822

Food for Thought...

It's good to have money and the things money can buy,
but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make
sure you haven't lost the things that money can't buy.
                                                    - George Horace Lorimer