VOLONTARIAT INDIA
Our vision of solidarity
ABOUT the concept of SOLIDARITY
The association Volontariat believes that Solidarity can takes several dimensions :
Charity
After the tsunami of December 2004, the VOLONTARIAT had brought to people in many villages, communities and individuals, emergency assistance in the form of provisions, clothing, kitchen utensils. Later, attention was given to the repair and renewal of their tools of work (fishing boats, spades and pickaxes, equipment for shoemakers, etc.), construction of temporary housing, systems providing drinking water, and finally building permanent houses. All this was made possible by donations from a large number of individual donors, associations, companies and institutions. All these donors have acted in a feeling of solidarity (compassion) towards individuals and groups who had lost everything. We also gave hope to the people who had lost everything and placed them on the road to the future.
Charitable solidarity can only be temporary, since it provides no real answer, over time, to the problems of a family or group. This brings us to the second stage of solidarity.
Development
For nearly 50 years, VOLONTARIAT has tried to allow all those who knocked at its door to build a better future, either directly through work or through education and training. One of the first examples was when we helped adults, newly arrived in Oupalam from the countryside because of repeated years of drought, to find regular work as scavengers of the Municipality of Pondicherry. Many employees of Volontariat are from families who came for help. Our answer was to offer them a job within the organization.
Mention may also be made of the beginning of Atelier Shanti, in 1967, a rehabilitation center for men and women with disability due to leprosy, who were rejected by society. They have acquired dignity and pride in their work as weavers. Most of the women doing sewing and embroidery work were widowed or had been abandoned by their husbands and had the sole responsibility of their children.
By the Sponsorship system, by taking care of children and teenagers of Souriya and Nila Illam, by apprenticeship such as at Liege carpentry, Volontariat is an actor in the development of thousands of children who, without the help of their sponsors, would have no training, no instruction, no education to start their lives on their own. That is why we thank all the individuals and families in Europe, India and elsewhere, for this action of solidarity through development, with the team of Volontariat.
Awareness raising or conscientization
Volontariat has been conducting for a very long time, Awareness Programs to fight against illiteracy and promote education for girls, to fight against foeticide of baby girls, due to preference for the male, to reduce alcoholism among men and their irresponsible behavior, to reduce domestic violence including sexual assaults, to improve hygiene and health, to ban the practice of dowry. Volontariat tries to reduce the social pressure at occasions like marriages and deaths, when families spend much above their possibility and so take loans at high interest, from the money-lenders who profit from the blood of the poor. But there is still much to do for the empowerment of women and men and for their liberation.
After the tsunami of December 2004, the VOLONTARIAT had brought to people in many villages, communities and individuals, emergency assistance in the form of provisions, clothing, kitchen utensils. Later, attention was given to the repair and renewal of their tools of work (fishing boats, spades and pickaxes, equipment for shoemakers, etc.), construction of temporary housing, systems providing drinking water, and finally building permanent houses. All this was made possible by donations from a large number of individual donors, associations, companies and institutions. All these donors have acted in a feeling of solidarity (compassion) towards individuals and groups who had lost everything. We also gave hope to the people who had lost everything and placed them on the road to the future.
Charitable solidarity can only be temporary, since it provides no real answer, over time, to the problems of a family or group. This brings us to the second stage of solidarity.
Development
For nearly 50 years, VOLONTARIAT has tried to allow all those who knocked at its door to build a better future, either directly through work or through education and training. One of the first examples was when we helped adults, newly arrived in Oupalam from the countryside because of repeated years of drought, to find regular work as scavengers of the Municipality of Pondicherry. Many employees of Volontariat are from families who came for help. Our answer was to offer them a job within the organization.
Mention may also be made of the beginning of Atelier Shanti, in 1967, a rehabilitation center for men and women with disability due to leprosy, who were rejected by society. They have acquired dignity and pride in their work as weavers. Most of the women doing sewing and embroidery work were widowed or had been abandoned by their husbands and had the sole responsibility of their children.
By the Sponsorship system, by taking care of children and teenagers of Souriya and Nila Illam, by apprenticeship such as at Liege carpentry, Volontariat is an actor in the development of thousands of children who, without the help of their sponsors, would have no training, no instruction, no education to start their lives on their own. That is why we thank all the individuals and families in Europe, India and elsewhere, for this action of solidarity through development, with the team of Volontariat.
Awareness raising or conscientization
Volontariat has been conducting for a very long time, Awareness Programs to fight against illiteracy and promote education for girls, to fight against foeticide of baby girls, due to preference for the male, to reduce alcoholism among men and their irresponsible behavior, to reduce domestic violence including sexual assaults, to improve hygiene and health, to ban the practice of dowry. Volontariat tries to reduce the social pressure at occasions like marriages and deaths, when families spend much above their possibility and so take loans at high interest, from the money-lenders who profit from the blood of the poor. But there is still much to do for the empowerment of women and men and for their liberation.