Hand in Hand (Tamil Nadu)

Hand in Hand is an Indian public charitable trust registered in the year 2002 with an initial focus on child labour elimination, education, and the empowerment of women. The organisation has been in operation since 1988, initially working in Kancheepuram District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Hand in Hands’ vision is to eradicate child labour and reduce poverty with a focus on education, employment, income generation, and empowerment. Since 2006 Hand in Hand is also active in South Africa and Afghanistan. In Tamil Nadu the target is 1.3 million new jobs and in South Africa and Afghanistan together 3.5 million jobs.

Hand in Hand is currently involved in implementing an Integrated Community Development Project for poverty reduction with five interconnected and interdependent sectors:

1. Child labour elimination and education with 70 transit schools and a target to get 300,000 children engaged in child labour in Tamil Nadu into schools
2. Self Help Groups and Microfinance for enterprise and job creation. By June 2008, 310,428 poor women have been organized and trained. They have started 168,624 small enterprises and 760 medium sized enterprises
3. Citizens’ Centres to strengthen democracy on a grassroots level. 1022 centres with libraries and IT facilities are up and running and the target is 4,000 centers to cover 20 million villagers
4. Medical camps and awareness campaigns to improve health levels. Programs include medical camps, facilitation of household latrines, Anaemia control among women and Malnutirtion among children aged less than 6 years. Presently this covers 125,000 persons per year
5. Environmental protection via solid waste management and watershed projects. Projects till date include 61,863 households covered under Solid waste management project and 11 mini-watershed projects

Hand in Hand receives funding from Dr Percy Barnevik, Stichting af Jochnick Foundation AB, Give2Asia, and Global Giving among others.