Who are we?
The Bookfeeding Project is supported by the Aid India Humanist Organization (Tamil Nadu, India) and aims at providing abandoned kids with English books and textbooks in order to create a furnished library in two local orphanages.
The Bookfeeders are all those volunteers who joined and improve the project, in the field or from distance.
Do you want to start a Bookfeeding Project in your NGO?
Our Story
Back in 1992 Peter Raj, a college Psychology teacher from Sathankulam (Tamil Nadu), finally reached the goal of his life: creating a NGO which could give a financial support to local micro-finance projects and disabled kids, building a home to host local kids without families/having an extremely poor family situation or formerly employed in child labour traffic and offering training programs dedicated to the community.
This was the reason why AID India was born, and the beginning of our path.
In 2009, in order to collect money to run this idea, he founded the Ave Maria Comprehensive Institute which is currently the main channel of incomes for AID India. The main body of the building is dedicated to the school (which the boys and girls of the orphanage attend too), while a section apart was raised in order to give a more comfortable shelter and better food to these unlucky kids.
In 2011 the collaboration between AID India and the European Union started, and some funds helped improving the structure. Unfortunately now, because of the worldwide economic crisis, things are deteriorating and we fear we won't be able to support all our children like before. We were asked many times why wouldn't we leave the kids in the governmental orphanages, where they can be fed for free: the answer is simple and direct. In Tamil Nadu these public structures are dreadful, dirty and not safe at all: there are many cases of rape, abuse and bad healthcare, thus leading to kids escaping. No way we will abandon our children there!
The Bookfeeding Project was started by an Italian volunteer who happened to work in Ave Maria House in 2011 and see all this with her own eyes. After noticing that donations for the orphanage had decreased in the last two years, she decided to get back in action and intervene. The Project was born thinking at all those second-hand books, unused old electronic devices (PCs) and outworn clothes that people store up in their houses and that they are unable to give away. Things that would help us improving the facilities of the orphanage. AID India is facing a hard time now, as the requests to give shelter to kids have increased massively. Luckily, we got approval for distance adoption programs, which at least cover the expenses for food and education tools for one single child.
AID India and The Bookfeeding Project survive on private donations: we are Non Governmental Organization which does not receive financial support by the local authorities OR the Catholic Church (or any typology of religious institution).
We are a group of people from different cultural backgrounds and religious beliefs that joined up together to help others. For free. For how long this project may run, we want to keep it like this: FREE from any institution, ruled by VOLUNTARY staff and POSITIVE.
We want to be the change we would like to see in the World.
Peter Raj
General Secretary of AID India
