Dubrayapet, a coastal village in Pondicherry, India, is the centre of our activities. It covers three hamlets Vambakeerapalayam, Manalmedu and Rajiv Gandhi Nagar. They are all very close to the sea coast. Even as early from eighteenth century, this area has been monopolized by leprosy infested persons. There is a burial ground in the centre. For long, this has been a shunned and neglected place. Slowly, migrant settlements started coming up in these places. The settlers were
mostly fisherman coolies, laborers, rickshaw pullers, load men and the like. Most of them are illiterates. They have reconciled with the condition they live in. Men have no regular income. Many of them are addicted to alcohol. Mostly women have to work to feed the children and maintain the family. For these women, home is not a haven of peace, but a place of eternal struggle. Alcohol has played havoc in dismantling the family units and the children have become the main victims.
Children have no role models. If they are not spotted in time and wean away from the surrounding, they may end up in their elders’ way. They may become a pawn in the hands of anti-socials.
Redeeming these children and the society from the degeneration has become our main objective.
If our poor die of hunger, it is not because God does not care for them. It is because neither you nor I are generous enough - [Mother Teresa]
