St.Joseph's Development Trust (SJDT)
Phone: +91 454 6236856
Mobile: +91 9442642486
E-Mail: sponsor@sjdt.in
At present SJDT run SIX centers for children – Pudhu Vasantham, Pudhu Udhayam, Pudhu Punal, Pudhu Irudhayam, Boys Village and Pudhu Yugam, and fostering little over 500 children.
| S.No. | CENTER | GIRLS | BOYS | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pudhu Vasantham | 114 | - | 114 |
| 2 | Pudhu Udhayam | 26 | 20 | 46 |
| 3 | Pudhu Punal | 159 | 44 | 203 |
| 4 | Pudhu Irudhayam | 107 | - | 107 |
| 5 | Boys Village | - | 21 | 21 |
| 6 | Pudhu Yugam | 13 | 16 | 29 |
| TOTAL | 419 | 101 | 520 | |
| Percentage | 81% | 19% | 100% |
Below 10 years of age
Between 10 and 12 years of
Between 12 and 16 years
Special Children &
Juvenile Home Children
Pudhu Vasantham is a home for orphan girls started in the year 1998 at Pallapatti village of Dindigul district in Tamil Nadu. Started by supporting four children in the beginning has grown up now to foster 114 girl children.
Pudhu Udhayam is aimed at fostering mentally challenged children started in the year 2002 at Pallapatti Village of Dindigul district in Tamil Nadu. It is fostering 46 children at present.
Pudhu Punal, a home for the destitute and abandoned children started functioning since 2007 at Genguvarpatti village in Theni district. It is bringing up 203 children - 159 girls and 44 boys at present.
Pudhu Irudhayam is a home for the destitute girl children started in the year 2009 at Thiruvidaikazhi village of Tranquebar Taluk in Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu. It is now nurturing 107 girl children.
St. Joseph’s Boys’ Village was started in 1974 at Genguvarpatti village of Theni district by the De La Salle Brothers with a view to provide a homely atmosphere to the orphans, destitute poor, abandoned youth, boys in need and most at risk. At present it is taking care of 21 boys.
The Pudhu Yugam reception home is functioning at Dindigul since 1997, under the Department of Social Defense of Tamil Nadu’s Juvenile Justice Act (Care and Protection of Children) Programme. At this point of time 29 children are at this home.!
In all the centers, we recruit the right people especially foster mothers, wardens, support staff, kitchen staff and a manager for each centre to take care of our children.
Quality education is provided by linking them with mainstream schools besides providing nutritious food, medical care and safe shelter in our centers. We encourage our children’s on campus sports and cultural activities.
We have our own school for the special children wherein skill education is provided to them according their learning capacity. Physiotherapy is provided to them regularly and Yoga is been taught as part of their learning.
The importance and role of resilient women-folk for rural economic growth and poverty reduction is clearly an undeniable fact. They play catalytic roles as farmers, labourers and small-scale entrepreneurs, as well as caretakers of their family - children and the elderly especially. According to UNIFEM (2000), women’s empowerment consists of “gaining the ability to generate choices and exercise bargaining power … developing a sense of self-worth, a belief in one’s ability to secure desired changes, and the right to control one’s life.”
Micro credit has become an important approach for poverty reduction in many parts of the world. It enables people to liberate themselves from informal money lenders and mainstream their credit needs to regulated formal market. It has proven by many that poor are bankable, and the financial services to the poor can be a self-sustaining operation.
SJDT has promoted more than 400 Self Help Groups over the years by encouraging group savings and credits besides providing loans to members for income generation activities. As there was a growing need for these activities among its group members, SJDT realised the scope and scale of this work and decided to reach out to more people. So with the support of donor agencies SJDT upscale its micro credit operations.