In order to receive the support of the government or large corporations, we must either have a renewable nine-year lease, which is virtually impossible to obtain from a landlord today, or own the site of our operations .

As announced in newsletter no. 24, the audit of our actions by the founders of the ATPAR (Alliance To Promote Abilities and Rehabilitation) took place. Thilakam Rajendra, a Delhi woman specializing in NGO management, andher husband came to spend four days with us. For over 30 years, she has analyzed the actions of all NGOs in India in their successes and failures. Thus the government has chosen her to create a counseling center for the creation and distribution of objects made by people with disabilities. One such site was the Muskaan Center in Delhi, which our president visited during his last visit to Delhi, as well as various others in the capital, accompanied by Thilakham.

It was within the framework of the office of this governmental commission in which Dr. Tulsi sat that he came to know Thilakam. Since then, she and her husband have created the ATPAR. As for Rajendran, her husband, who is the executive of large companies, he brings his economic and financial knowledge to bear. The aim of their company is to advise NGOs in any changes or reorientation necessary in order to achieve autonomy. For example, at our request for an audi, Dr. Tulsi called on them to develop the restructuring and reorganization needed by Deva Center after 28 years of operation.

Following this report, we decided, in order to receive subsidies from the government or large companies (They have been obliged by law for two years to give 1% of their turnover to charitable organizations), to engage administrative procedures for our head office to be officially registered in the village of Bachhaon, currently the site of the center fo young women of the village, the Annapurna Center, where we ow land.

We are in the process of acquiring the land opposite ours, on which we will build a training center at the request of the government, which has committed to financing this program with the following objectives:

• Offer a place of reception to the handicapped of all the surroundings of the village and to give them the possibility of undertaking a remunerative activity.
• Enable the integration of young women and the disabled and ensure the training of specialized educators.
• Set up a tool for the production of handicrafts in the same building.

In order to do so, from a group of twenty psychology students from Benares Hindu University who came to conduct a clinical course at Dr. Tulsi’s in April, six have accepted the mission to go to the neighboring villages to identify the disabled there. The results of their study will allow us to design the configuration of the buildings to accommodate them and at the same time ensure the training of other caregivers which the government has offered to Dr. Tulsi and his team.

A training center for caregivers will be set up there, as well as a handicraft production workshop for handicapped people in this enlarged area currently used by young women at the Annapurna Center. They will be able to make handcrafted objects with the handicapped, sell them and distribute them with the help of our partners of ATPAR. This will enable the integration of the disabled and the young women into a common project.