Image 1: Gowthami Penned By Board Member Alo Pal When our social worker on outreach met Gowthami, she started to cry. She was in desperate need of funds. Sharana enquired, gathered details, studied her business plan, and then sanctioned a loan of Rs.20.000/- so that she could buy popcorn, sweet corn, French fries, and quail… Read more »

    Image: The girl in the centre is Prithikadevi Penned by Board Member Alo Pal She is a lotus-eyed, long and thick-haired, slim of slight built beauty. She’s Prithikadevi, the daughter of Valli whom I met a few months ago. I knew of Valli’s decade-long struggle in raising her 3 daughters alone and doing… Read more »

Penned By Board Member Alo Pal Manikandan wants to be a policeman. His day begins at 3.00 a.m. when he goes out fishing with his father in the river. By 7.00 a.m. collection for the catch of the day is complete, he then comes to Pondicherry Goubert market from Angalakuppam village, and the sale is… Read more »

Penned By Board Member Alo Pal Aarthi was a spark of light during our summer camps. A happy little girl and a favourite with our staff. A beneficiary of our Back to School programme we had hoped, as we do for all our beneficiaries, that education would transform her life. The team at Sharana is… Read more »

Penned By Board Member Alo Pal “Why didn’t she give her 12th exam?” I asked Anbu, who had come to me that morning with Marie Josephine. “I needed to earn money fast Madam” replied Marie Josephine instead. Orphaned at 12 Marie has since lived with her grandmother and needed to be solvent quickly as they… Read more »

Penned By Board Member Alo Pal Angalan wants to be an archaeologist, Keerthana, a teacher, Jayasri a Police officer, and Jegadeshwari an entrepreneur. Angalan is pursuing his masters in Tamil, Keerthana, her M.Com Jayasri and Jegadeshwari, their B.Com. Under the collective sponsorship program, Jayasri has been with us as a toddler in our creche while… Read more »

Penned By Board Member Alo Pal It is the end of the year, and while I never place myself outside of the stories I chronicle for Sharana I still do follow a template that evaluates clinically the quality and success of Sharana’s intervention in the lives of the families we work with. But today my… Read more »

Penned By Board Member Alo Pal “Up I’m curling from the sod, I am whirling home to God; I am the Smoke King I am Black” Since we shared the love of English, poetry, and performance I requested her to recite a few lines, and I literally saw before my eyes the performer emerge from… Read more »

Penned by Ms. Harshitha, Seeds of Change Project Lead, and Mr. Sarthak Bhattacharya, Intern A holiday camp for the children of Lycée Français International à Pondichéry was organised at Sharana Social and Development organisation starting from the 24th of October till the 3rd of November except for the 1st of November being a holiday. A total of… Read more »

Penned by Board Member Ms. Alo Pal Social Development implies social change and in Sharana our success is a function of the extent of social change we have been able to effect on a beneficiary with our model centred on empowerment. We therefore send children to school, enrol school dropouts into viable vocational training courses… Read more »