14. mit einem VDC-President

Whats your Name?

Mariamanikam

How old are you?

50

Where do you come from?

Perisamipuram, Tamil Nadu, India

What is your family like?

Married, 4 women (25,23,21,19) two are married, one is conformed

What is your profession?:

I am Land-salesman. People of all casts come to me to buy properties in the village. And I am (was) VDC President. (The VDC- Village Development committee is a medium of PAD to organize a village. It consists of PAD group members and traditional officials of a village. Monthly it meets.) I work with VDC for 10 years.

Working for 10 years with PAD – what changes did you observe in Perisamitpuram?

In the beginnig PAD gave 45 houses to the village and a shorter time ago a water tank. All that is in use.

Than PAD supports 127 children in our village. The villagers are palm-trappers, fisher and salt kulis (Tagelöhner auf den Salzfarmen). That means our people are very poor.

The good change is, that now the study expenses for one child are not given to the family but sold by PAD. That includes our new boarding school.

In earlier times children could only attend school in off season. When the parents migrated for work they had to join, because there were no affordable way to keep the children study. Due to the help of PAD nowadays 450 children study in Perisamipuram. PAD is good!

Where did Lukas meet Mariamanikam?

I met him in Perisamipuram where I attended a annual school celebration to apreciate results of good pupils.