Anbumalar II at night

The inauguration of an upper floor at Anbumalar (the name means “Love Blossom” in Hindi) in February 2010 marked an important step towards achieving the school’s goal of self-sufficiency. The new conference hall and bedrooms are rented out to local organisations, ensuring a small income for the establishment.

The school itself – known as Anbumalar II, to distinguish it from the first campus in Chennai – was opened in 2007, with funds raised in Geneva, Switzerland (see below). But the story of the project started a decade earlier, when a social worker in Chennai, Mr. P. Selvaraj, was assigned on a temporary posting at a school for mentally challenged children.

Initially he hesitated, his ignorance of these disabilities leading him to imagine that the children would be violent. But his attitude changed the moment he arrived and was given an affectionate welcome, and he vowed to devote his life to caring for handicapped children.

In 1998 Mr. Selvaraj founded the Anbumalar Social Service Vision (ASSV), thanks to a government loan made to his wife, a teacher. He and other service-minded people intended reaching out to vulnerable, marginalised and otherwise needy sectors of society in Chennai’s slum areas. He opened his first school – Anbumalar I – in 2003 after finding that a significant number of children in the Ayanvaram district, from very poor and illiterate families, were mentally retarded. They had no access to any specialized care and were stigmatized in the community.

Inauguration of Anbumalar II

This school still functions today, caring for 35 handicapped youngsters in over-crowded and less-than-ideal conditions. It follows the government school syllabus as far as possible but is ineligible for full state support as the accommodation cannot meet required standards.

A visit to the school in 2003 by Friends of India’s Praveena Clements led to the ASSV being put forward as a fund-raising project to the Don du Choeur association in Geneva, which has raised money for similar projects by holding concerts, featuring children from more privileged backgrounds.

Work on Anbumular II began after a successful fund-raising concert in 2006 and the doors opened in 2007. Its facilities include eight classrooms, a dormitory for boarders, dining facilities, vocational training unit, physiotherapy room and, now, a conference hall with visitors’ rooms.

The school caters for children with various kinds of physical and mental disabilities, who come from poor families. Priority is given to those who have a parent suffering from TB or HIV/AIDS. There are currently 75 children enrolled, 50 of them as day students.

As well as its school programme, Anbumalar remains true to its founder’s vision through outreach programmes in the community, promoting awareness of mental disability and counselling families of handicapped children. The clinic (funded by the Fondation Mérieux until 2009) serves the needs of nearby villagers, providing up to 50 consultations a day.

Plaque in the dispensary

Revenue comes from government grants, local service clubs, Don du Choeur, Friends of India, private donors and sponsors either in India or abroad, the sale of products from the vocational training unit and from the vegetable garden. Rent from the conference hall will increase the school’s income. From 2012 the school is due to be funded entirely by the Indian government, but until then funding remains critical.  Friends of India has recruited new donors for the school including Eagle Foundation and Infosys and also has provided critical financial and technical advisory assistance.

The most recent innovative step towards self-funding came from the inauguration, in April 2010, of a locally-funded Gobar gas plant (Gobar in Hindi meaning “cow dung”). The school’s ten cows – five provided in 2010 by Friends of India – provide more than enough milk for its own use; the excess is sold. The cow dung is turned into a fertilizer – a richer and safer kind than if it were used untreated. The gas plant also produces enough cooking gas for the school.

The FOI’s Praveena Clements says: “This is a good example of how local funding complements the investment of outside donors.”

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