What We Do

Family Couselling Centre

Family Counselling Centre was started during the year 1999 with the help of the Central Social Welfare Board (TSWB), Chennai, and functioning effectively with the guidance & coordination of the District Administration in the identification of clients. This family counseling centre focuses on misunderstanding problems, suspiciousness, unemployment, depression, love affair, extramarital affair, pre-marital problem, dowry problem, etc. The family counseling centre helps the individual for an enhanced level of functioning when they are unable to cope with the problem brought in by these changes. Our family counseling centre aims at reducing the problems and crises, strengthening family coping skills, effecting positive changes in the attitude, improvement in lifestyle, providing timely counselling and support to lead a qualitative lifestyle.

The Prime Objectives of the Programme

• Pre-marital counseling
• Counseling for destitute women
• Legal counseling for women in divorce cases
• Counseling for marital, maladjustment problems.
• Counseling to tackle issues like eve-teasing.

FINISH – Health & Sanitation

With the funding support from FINISH – Financial Inclusion Improves Sanitation and Health, BMDC strives to improve sanitation and thereby, living and economic conditions of poor rural and per-urban households, through economic incentives, primarily enhancing financial inclusion of these households. Under this programme1 million toilets will be constructed throughout the country over a period of five years or so. Since the signing of “Memorandum of Understanding “ with the Finish Society in the year 2009 the programme is being implemented vigorously.

Key Achievements

• Individual Household Latrines
• Capacity building of community, animators, school children, PRIs.
• Information, Education and Communication (IEC)Activities.
• Provision of loans for toilet construction (constructing a hygienic toilet, consisting of three models – Septic tank, Single pit &Double pit including the costs of requisite materials, construction and labor). Loans were disbursed for renovation of existing toilets.
• School Sanitation.
• Linkages with government subsidy schemes.
• BWDC creates new designs which are suitable to the people, area, geographical and climatic conditions.

Integrated Rehabilitation Centre for Addicts

With the dream of creating an addiction free world, BWDC opened the Integrated Rehabilitation Centre for Addicts (IRCA) and has been continuously supported by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, since 2001. Since its beginning, IRCA has grown to a 15 bed. It specializes in creating a multi- faceted program that reaches people from all different walks of life. IRCA focuses on three things – awareness, de-addiction treatment, and rehabilitation. Its program features individual, group, marital, pre-marital, and youth therapy. IRCA is a firm believer in maintaining and restoring patient’s relationships with friends and family. Through many types of therapy, relationships can be restored, and support systems at home can be created. Skilled counselors help patients develop their personalities in order to fight addictive habits. The recovery rate of the centre is above 80 percent from the inception.

Type of Addiction

Alcohol, Ganja, Panparag, Smoking, Tobacco, Hans & Solvent.

District so for Covered:

Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Ariyalur,
Dharmapuri, Sivagangai, Karaikal, Cuddalore, Kancheepuram & Chennai, Pudukottai, Puducherry, Trichy, Vilupuram & Pune(Maharashtra)

Mahasakthi Micro Finance Services

Our Micro Finance activities – Mahasakthi Micro Finance Programme, initiated in the year 2009, is one of the well-known microfinance institutions in the Thiruvarur & Nagapattinam Districts focusing on the sustainability of financial inclusion programmes and the development of women and their families. Microfinance, contrary to its name, is making a macro-level change in the global poverty alleviation initiatives.

Presently, Mahasakthi Finance Programme is one of the renowned and the largest microfinance institutions across the Districts of Thiruvarur & Nagapattinam in terms of its outreach and large credit portfolio. As of now, it serves 36,618 households in 3 districts of Southern Tamilnadu utilizing the dedicated services of more than 100 employees.

The main objectives of microfinance are as under:

• To promote investments in income-generating assets so as to improve the livelihood opportunities
• To reduce migration of small & marginal farmers and others
• To provide microfinance on easy terms both for investments and consumption purposes
• To reduce dependence on moneylenders
• To encourage group lending and exert community pressure for timely repayment

Old Age Home

For those aged group of people who have been shunned by society and their loved ones, the Old Age Home (OAH) gives them a chance to spend the second innings of their lives with other likeminded people their own age, with comfort and all the major facilities that they require during this fragile age. The home was started in the year 1993 to address the needs of senior citizens. At present the home has 25 residents in Kattur / Pavithramanickam village in Thiruvarur district.

BWDC has been able to create conducive environments where the aged get a chance to engage with other people of their own age and also pursue a range of interest related activities.

At OAH we pride ourselves on providing our residents with best-practice service, aiming to meet their physical, psychological and spiritual requirements. Our staff expertise, knowledge, caring and understanding approach provides day to day support and encourages residents to lead a full and enriched life, through meaningful experiences. The programme has a linkage with the nursery school which is also located in the nearby campus where the small children are coming and also to have affectionate contact and relationship with the aged people.

Highlights

• BWDC gives complete care of the residents like medical checkup, clothes besides nutritious food and shelter.   In addition to this, they are also provided with reading room facilities with newspapers, magazines, etc and recreation facilities. A few chosen experienced people also help in cooking, maintenance of kitchen garden and other sundry activities.
• The Old Age Home programme is a well popularized programme in the area of Tiruvarur district and many of the local donors are also supporting in various manners like morally, financially, materially and socially.

Sanitation Capacity Building

BWDC has been working in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) since for more than 20 years, starting in the 2009 primarily with small sanitation projects in individual communities. Over time the organization’s strategy evolved to providing finance linked with development initiatives. BWDC gained much experience in the subsequent decades, including a significant scale-up through its Mahasakthi Microfinance Services wherein households lent to improve access to water and proper sanitation for households.

In 2009, BWDC made a strategic decision to scale up its investment in WASH, making an increased, targeted investment in WASH in Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts. This subsequently became an important pillar at BWDC and today, BWDC finances a range of developmental causes from education and health to safe water and sanitation. Because of this strategic investment, more than 31,000 toilets have been reached with WASH interventions between 2009-2017 and have covered over 545 villages of Southern Tamilnadu.

BWDC began in collaboration with Maanaveeya Development & Finance Private Limited, through both grant (capacity building and technical assistance) and loan funds with the aim of providing low income earners the possibility to purchase or build safe water and sanitation facilities.