Grace Peter Charitable Trust works largely with local communities on initiatives linked to their social empowerment and livelihood support. The interventions includes, education, child health care, environment protection, health, gender issues and economic empowerment of women. GPCT has been working for more than 17 years and it is currently spread to over to 92 villages forming part of West Madurai Block of Madurai district in Tamil Nadu. So far, 20450 poor people have benefited by GPCT programs.

The organization aims to bring about change in the life of people of rural India. They want to help underprivileged children and widows irrespective of caste, colour, language and religion. Our vision is to help the physically handicapped, blind, and HIV affected people.

Grace and Peter were philanthropists. The organisation followed their footsteps in establishing this NGO and in following their ideals.

No. of women provided with Sewing Machine - 26

No. of women provided with Sarees - 40

No. of Children provided with educational Support and Clothes - 55

No. of children provided with Nutrition food - 50

The Indian Association for the Blind (IAB) is popularly known as the temple for rehabilitation, that affirms its commitment to empower visually challenged people to practice self-reliance by providing comprehensive rehabilitation, education and employment opportunities to them.

Based at Madurai, their special focus on economically disadvantaged visually challenged children and adults has fostered education and rehabilitation to more than 11,000 visually challenged people.

With over 24 projects that enhance the quality and quantity of educational and employment opportunities, their activities have benefited 20% of the visually challenged population of Tamil Nadu.

The long list of awards that this association has been honored with includes the Millennium Award by All India Confederation for the Blind, New Delhi, CSR Award, IBN7 Super Idol Award and the National Award by the President of India. Providing assistance in education, career, and residence, the members of IAB are committed to raise the living standard of visually impaired people and help them travel the road to independence and self-reliance.

JK MAASS Foundation is a social, health, development and empowerment agency servicing differently abled people from underprivileged communities for the past 16 years.

The Foundation is dedicated to the rehabilitation of the differently abled and works for their upliftment in the urban slums and rural areas of Madurai district. It was started with the aim of providing services like physiotherapy, speech therapy and special education to children affected by Cerebral Palsy and counselling to their parents.

The founder being a professional Physiotherapist has dedicated himself to the well being of Differently Abled persons. He is well known as a professional trainer for identification and rehabilitation of orthopaedic disabilities.

SWEED was initiated in 1989 by a team of women activists. The vision of the organisation is to Facilitate a casteless, classless, secular, non-party, just and gender equal society.

At first, it concentrated on only 10 villages in Melur block and then extended its work to all 13 blocks in Madurai district. 60 percent of the rural population serviced by SWEED comprised of agriculture labourers, small and marginal farmers. Employment opportunities in these villages were very limited.

education of women remained a distant dream for many. Early marriage and gender exploitation were other problems the people faced. Melur and Kottampatti blocks were high-risk for HIV/AIDS infections.

Mrs. Mabel Pushpam is the head of the organization with nearly 28 years experience in women development activities. She began her career in social development as an evangelical worker and as a volunteer activist in Palmyra Workers Development Society in Kanyakumari district in the early 1980s.

This rich experiences provided her an opportunity to lend her services to DESA in Melur Taluk in Madurai district. Her training and experience in SIRD, helped her to establish SWEED in 1989. They have a team of only 5 people.

Stats for 16-17:

Number of general Medical checkup for children, men and women - 980

Number of SHGs got Milch Animals - 101

Number of kits of Pro health Powder for HIV infected people that were distributed - 76