Giving them dignity

The residents of MGR Nagar in Pattamadai village in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu are a happy lot as RC Tinnevelly, RID 3212, has gifted all the 38 households with a toilet. The colony with 70 households is now open-defecation-free, beams the club’s TRF Grants Chair P Satheeshkumar. The village is famous for its flexible and soft mats woven from korai grass (reed plant).

The toilets costing  $40,458 were completed with the support of a global grant involving RCs La Crosse Valley, La Crosse Downtown, RID 6250, USA, and TRF.

PDG Dr Chinnadurai Abdullah addressed the beneficiary families and resourcepersons from the Government Medical College, Tirunelveli, and educated them on the maintenance of toilets and the health hazards of open defecation.

Last year the club had constructed toilet blocks and handwash stations, and provided a sanitary napkin incinerator to the 125-year-old ­Ramaseshier School, adjacent to the colony. These are benefitting nearly 500 boys and 250 girls. “That was one of our commemorative projects to celebrate our club’s 75-year ­milestone last year,” says Satheeshkumar. Back then the club had the support of the same international partners and “so impressed were our US partners ­Sondra and Roger Legrand, who had visited the project site for the inauguration of the toilets in the school that they organised a fundraiser on their return to the US,” he adds.