India, the second most populous country in the world has declared a 21 day national lockdown. There have been many shocking images of millions of migrant workers trying to leave the cities to return to their villages. These daily wage workers have been let go from their jobs. They live from hand to mouth with no savings and now with no work their only option is to return to their rural villages. There is no safety net to help them survive this global catastrophe.
All our Nandri families are being severely impacted by this lockdown and will be in great danger when the Covid Virus hits their villages. They live in very rural areas with little or no medical care and we have seen cities like New York with top rate health care brought to its knees by the number of people very ill and losing their lives. The Indian Government is giving some support but it will not be enough for our families to survive 21 days without work or income.
Nandri is there to help and support our mothers and families through this desperate time. We will support our families financially. Just 1000 rupees (12 euros) per month to each of our mothers will help them survive this unprecedented pandemic. It is important to help our families avoid contracting this disease, especially as they will be particularly vulnerable as there is very little medical care available to them. We have implemented educational programmes in order to teach our families about the importance of hygiene - especially hand washing and to emphasize the importance of social distancing to prevent spread. This disease is new to us all and it is vitally important that our families are informed how to prevent contracting it.
The world is going through an unprecedented pandemic that is devastating countries both rich and poor but the effect that Covid19 will have on our poorer countries is unimaginable. We have seen wealthy Nations with sophisticated health care buckling under this virus. India has a population of 1.3 Billion, of which 360 million live in poverty. This virus does not discriminate on who it infects but the poor are so much more vulnerable. Nandri has already transformed the lives of over 5000 poor Dalit mothers and their families and through out this pandemic we will do everything in our power to protect, support and see our vulnerable families through this desperate time.
We want to thank our donors who make it possible for Nandri to do its work in supporting our mothers and their families. In this extraordinary and very frightening time, a special thanks to you all for helping us to help them. As Nandri means thanks in the Tamil language we would like to say a big “Nandri” to all our donors and supporters.
These loans will help the mothers to start a small business and generate income so they can keep their children in education. Nandri has transformed the future for these deserving families.
and enabling our older children to progress to higher education, we also run after school children’s clubs for the younger Dalit boys and girls. To date we have 10 Child resource Centers catering to the needs of our children.When their school day ends they go to the after school clubs. They kick off with some fun traditional games to energize the children before starting their homework. Many of their parents are illiterate and so unable to help their children with completing their homework assignments. One of the many benefits of our children’s clubs is our remedial teachers are always on hand to help them.WIth the wonderful educational support these young boys and girls are receiving from Nandri, we expect to see tremendous success with our children continuing on to 3rd level education and well paid, fulfilling careers. This was something impossible for a child from an untouchable Dalit family until Nandri, with your help changed everything and gave them a bright future.Without the support and donations from all of Nandri’s supporters we could not change these young peoples lives, 
giving them not just hope, but the practical financial help they need to achieve their goals in life. On behalf of all our children, I would like to say a big thank you!
Christmas should be a season of happiness and joy but for our poor Dalit mothers, struggling to survive, this is not the case. This year, we wanted to make Christmas extra special for them. In previous years we gave our mothers sarees but this year our group leaders suggested we give small gifts to celebrate Christmas and recognise our mothers achievements in the past year.
It certainly lifted their spirits! They sang and danced and were delighted with the presents they received. The spirit of Christmas and the joy of giving brought happiness to all during our celebrations. 
Nandri provided the mother with a micro finance loan enabling her to buy the cow which will give her family food, in the form of dairy products, an income from the products she can sell and in the future, a calf which will further boost the income of the family. Because of the increase in income, the children will be able to afford to continue their education. What a difference a cow makes in the lives of our poor families. This mother will never forget how a jar full of coins changed her life.Our generous donor called his cow Aideen after a family member! What would you name your cow?
In January 2012 we started a micro finance programme to give a loan to a mother to buy a cow or other income generating asset. The mother can repay a loan within two years and all repayments are immediately re-loaned to another needy mother in the group.In 2013 we realised that many of our children were dropping out of education at 17 or 18 years of age. We then started to give them loans to go to college. This immediately doubled the number of our children who go to 3rd level, as many families could not previously afford the upfront fees, despite the fact that this was only in many cases less than €100 per annum. Most of our mothers only earn €20 a month.We could not manage these programmes without the appropriate technology and systems and Salesforce is the most important system which we use. Today we have quite an extensive, complex database, with details of over 3,500 mothers, 2000 children and 700 current donors in our systemEvery month almost Rs.2 million is processed through the Salesforce system. Within two weeks of each month end we receive a set of management accounts which have been audited by a local chartered accountant in India. In Ireland one of our directors who is also a chartered accountant produces monthly accounts for Ireland and reviews the accounts from India.Our mother's pay 1% per month interest on the reducing balance and this is mainly used to fund the third level loan program. Our mothers also pay a membership fee of about one rupee per day. This income is enabling us to grow the organisation and to achieve a level of self sustainability in India.In February 2016 we opened our Nandri centre. It is a 6000 ft.² building. The opening was attended by over 3500 mothers and children and local dignitaries. It has put us on the map locally and has enabled us to apply for grants from the Indian government to run training programmes for our mothers and children. It cost about €300,000 and was fully paid for by a small number of donors from Ireland including some directors. The building is used for training courses and administration and for regular meetings of over 600 officers of our 200 mothers self-help groups.Most of our 3500 mothers are members of the low caste so-called untouchable Dalit community. We found it difficult to rent rooms for meetings and offices. Our mothers are treated like travellers in Ireland, who find it hard to rent rooms for weddings or other celebrations. Our 3500 mothers proudly wear their Nandri saris and are proud to be part of our organisation.We are a small organisation and our revenue for the current financial year is likely to be around €200,000. We only have one part time employee in Ireland who works 10 hours a week. Our future strategy is to grow our micro finance fund. Since 2012 we have issued loans of over €900,000. The repayments are used to issue about 50 to 100 new loans every month.In 2016 we were approved a grant of $50,000 from the Lions Clubs International Foundation #LCIF. We had to come up with $17,000 matching funds and much of this was provided by Lions Clubs in Ireland. This fund has already being used to provide loans to 350 widows and single parents.On top of our micro finance programmes, our mothers, who meet every month in groups of 15 to 20, are also encouraged to save. They save about Rs.100 per month which is the equivalent of a days wages for them. This money is reloaned to their group colleagues. They also charge each other a small interest-rate. Our mothers proudly show off their passbooks which record their subscriptions, savings and loans. We have set up the necessary paperwork systems to enable them to manage these loans and savings themselves. We employ eight fieldworkers who attend all the meetings to ensure that all our procedures and systems are maintained.
We want our sponsors and donors to know that we make their money go far. Every €400 donation will change the life of a family who receive a loan to buy a cow. Two years later the same money will benefit another family and so on. A donation to Nandri is a gift that keeps on giving. Our future plan is double the size of our loan book. Within five years we hope to have 10,000 mothers of which over 5000 will have received a life changing loan.
centres after school and start their evenings with some traditional fun games in order to relax after their long days of learning at school. Their evening studies are supervised by the teachers, who help them with their homework, practice reading and writing skills, and also organise singing and dancing classes which the children thoroughly enjoy!In this wonderfully positive atmosphere, the children’s education, talents and overall well being is being nurtured. I
was privileged to visit one of these centres in January, and enjoyed seeing their school work and a wonderful display of singing and dancing from the most happy, smiling little people. It was a joy to see.As most of the parents of Nandri’s children are uneducated, they would be unable to help their sons and daughters with their school work. They are so grateful to Nandri Resource Centres for ensuring the very best for their children. They see the difference it makes in their school grades and how happy the children are to participate in the after school programmesNandri Resource Centres are helping the future generations of Nandri families fulfill their dreams and escape poverty through education. 
The Nandri Foundation is committed to the education and development of our children. All our activities are carefully designed to protect and promote the best interests of the child. 