We support organic alternatives

At SCAD we are concerned with any initiative which will help us to protect the environment locally. One of the best projects that we have is the Soil Fertility Project. This is an ingenious initiative which provides SCAD farmers with two different organic products to use on the land to increase fertility.

The first product that we use in the soil is called Biochar. Biochar is a very nutrient rich type of charcoal. The charcoal is made through a specific process called pyrolysis which entails burning organic materials such as straw, rice husks and wood at very high temperatures so that they keep all their good minerals.

The biochar that is created is then mixed with the soil when saplings are planted. Biochar has a very large surface area in which good minerals and nutrients can live and feed the roots of the plant thereby promoting healthy growth.

The second product that we use is an organic fertiliser which is produced by our SCAD bio-digester. This bio-digester takes organic waste including the left overs from the student mess halls and local foliage and processes it into fertiliser. An additional benefit from this process is that it releases methane which is then captured and used to run all of the street lighting on the SCAD campus.

Watch this video about the work we do to protect the environment

If you want to support us you can donate online. Thank you

Tirunelveli District Sports Day for Mentally Challenged Children

The Tirunelveli District Level Sports Day for mentally disabled children conducted by the District Sports Authority of Tirunelveli was held this year on the 19th November, 2011, at the Anna Stadium, Palayamkottai. 243 Mentally challenged children from 17 special schools in the District participated in the sports day with great enthusiasm. Five children per school were permitted to participate in the sports events and three boys and two girls representing SCAD Anbu Illam, Chereanmahadevi, were taken to the Anna Stadium, to participate in different events

SCAD has encouraged and motivated the mentally challenged by giving them the needed coaching in sports activities, due to which they were able to win three prizes. Esakkimuthu, aged 11, took part in the Cricket ball throw and won the 1st prize. Pandi, aged 13, took part in the jump competition, in the 13 to 17 category, and won the 2nd prize. Jefferson, aged 15, took part in shot put and won the 2nd prize.

Mr. Nainar Nagendran, was the Chief Guest, and distributed the prizes and certificates. He said, “ Only when sports days are held exclusively for mentally challenged children can the benefits and assistance reach them 100%. I have helped several sections of people, but I’d very much like to involve my time and resource to such mentally challenged children.”

The children enjoyed the day very much. The Sports’ Coordinator, Mr. Mallikaraj, who had trained the students of Anbu Illam by giving them practice twice a week, and guiding them properly, said, “We were able to identify and tap the potentiality of our students when they competed with the students of the other schools in the District. This was very good exposure for the students and the students enjoyed themselves.”

December Salt Seller

Our Salt of the Earth December Saltseller is out!

This quarter the features include the big news that we have passed the £3 million pound donation mark. Murray Frankland earlier this year appeared on local radio to announce our wonderful achievement. It is down to the dedication of our generous supporters over the years that this has been possible. The second feature is the role of the village level volunteers who work at SCAD and keep the organisation reaching out to people. There is an update on our projects that we support out there and a write up by Kim Roberts and her daughter about their visit this summer. The breaking news at SCAD this summer has been their venture into biodigestion at the main SCAD campus. Tons and tons of waste is now being regenerated into biofuel and biofertiliser.

To download a copy of the saltseller please click here and to see more information on the website please click here

Employment & Sabbatical Teaching Opportunities in India

Not-for-Profit Institution in Tamil Nadu Seeks UK Teachers for New International School.

Social Change & Development (SCAD), a not-for-profit education provider in Southern India, is offering UK teachers opportunities for employment or sabbatical as it establishes a new international school in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

SCAD World School will open in May 2012 with preparations beginning Dec 2011. It is seeking experienced teachers from the UK to help prepare for the internationally recognised English medium Cambridge Syllabus. SCAD is looking for head teachers and staff for primary and secondary schools, overseeing examinations at IGCSE, AS and A levels. There are also places for subject teachers and administrative staff.

The offer includes one return flight to India and all accommodation, food and local travel plus a salary package based on position and experience.

Speaking during his recent UK visit, SCAD Founder Dr Cletus Babu said, “Our intention is to bring the high standards and quality of UK education to the young people of Tamil Nadu. We invite teachers in the UK to join us for this exciting adventure and in the process enjoy an extraordinary personal experience with us in India.

SCAD is a not-for-profit organisation that currently runs 11 schools, colleges and technical institutions educating over 10,000 students. The proceeds from these institutions are reinvested in local education initiatives. These benefit very poor people in rural villages creating opportunities for further education and a better life. Some 500,000 people currently benefit directly from SCAD rural development projects.

For more information and job descriptions please contact Katie Allen on 07900 214608 or at development@salt-of-the-earth.org.uk

Success of the microbes

At SCAD we have been trailing effective micro-organisms for the last year on the soils and crops. Effective microbes are a new regenerative technology that harnesses nature to replace essential vitamins and minerals in soils to help plants grow. Microbes, beneficial and harmful, occur naturally and are fundamental to life on earth. The combination of three particular microbial strains in a balanced population effectively restores the microbial health of almost any physical environment in such a way that beneficial or regenerative microorganisms become dominant and pathogenic or harmful microorganisms are reduced.

EM formulations create and maintain a healthy microbial balance in almost any natural system and significantly improve the health and vitality of soil, water, plants, animals and humans. The combination of certain microbial species, including lactic acid bacteria, photosynthetic bacteria and yeasts, and their application to the environment in a specific way produces beneficial effects. I like to think of them like  a Yakult for soil!

Mr.Vaithiyanathan has been using the effective micro-organisms for the past three months and he has seen a marked improvement in his crops. In the treated crops the

• leaves are noticably greener and thicker.
• number of seeds has increased with the control producing 163 per tiller and the EMA treated crop is producing 190 per tiller.
• seeds look healthier, riper and uniformly bigger.
• pests and diseases are dramatically reduced.

We are really excited about the progress of using the micro-organisms in India, especially as they can be produced locally and offer a real alternative to herbicides and pesticides which have damaged the land.

At SCAD and Salt of the Earth we are passionate about agriculture and we recognise the vital importance of producing food sustainably. SCAD support over 1,500 kitchen gardens in Tamil Nadu (you can read more about kitchen gardens on a post on Emma Cooper’s blog written by me here). Imagine how these microbes could help women grow their kitchen gardens and protect their families health, make additional income and bring back life to the land.

If you have had any experience with effective micro-organisms then we would like to hear about it…drop us a line.

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A full house

We are delighted with the interest our supporters and friends have shown in the 2012 SOTE tour to SCAD, which is now fully booked – in fact we’ve squeezed in an extra person! Our tour allows us to see first-hand the great work SCAD is achieving with your generous donations … and take in some of the spectacular sights of Southern India.

With such a positive response, we hope to run more tours to visit SCAD. If you couldn’t make it this time, now is your chance to come in 2013 – 4 to 19 January. Please email me:  eddie@thehay.greenisp.org  if you’re thinking of joining us, or if you would like to know more about the tour…

…I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Eddie Gaylard  Tour Leader

Busy trees

Busy Trees from the World Agroforestry Centre is part of the UN International Year of Forests Campaign. They are highlighting the benefits of planting trees in farms all over the world.

Busy Trees can:

- bring in more income for poor farmers leading to more farmers children attending school

- increase the health of the local community especially if fruit trees or medicinal trees are planted

- help to slow climate change

- help soil to be more fertilised because leaves from the trees fall down and naturally decompose into the soil

- increase community organisation around planting and looking after the trees

- reduce pressure on natural ecosystems

- stop topsoil from being washed away during rains

- provide building materials for local homes

You can read more about busy trees here

You can plant a tree with Salt of the Earth here

Salt of the Earth reaches the £3,000,000 donation mark

We would like to say ‘Thank You’ to all of our supporters and dedicated fundraisers for helping us to raise £3,000,000 for our partners in India, Social Change and Development (SCAD). All of the money that we raise goes directly to India because we are a volunteer organisation. Salt of the Earth are the main fundraisers for SCAD and our support over the last 23 years has ensured that they have been able to flourish and expand.

Murray Frankland, Salt of the Earth’s founder had this to say about the achievement “Salt of the Earth is run entirely by volunteers and we have created what we call a network charity – established and operated long before the days when networks became a buzzword. It’s a testament to our supporters’ belief in the value of the work being done by SCAD that they have helped us to raise such an incredible amount of money over the years.

Sadly, despite India being regarded as a new economy, I don’t see the vital work that we support abating as the gap between rich and poor in India is ever widening. It is, therefore, our intention to continue to raise the funds required for many years to come.”

The money that has been donated through Salt of the Earth has been spent on a wide range of SCAD activities benefiting local communities and the environment. The money has supported these activities in the following way

• £300,000 towards the planting of just under 500,000 trees to provide shade, shelter and income for hundreds of schools and villages
• £500,000 for training, and development of outreach work, for the 2,500 women’s self help groups
• £300,000 towards the construction of 70 ooraneries (local reservoirs) – used to harvest monsoon water and cultivate fish stocks for food
• £100,000 – rainwater harvesting tanks for schools
• £400,000 – scheme for offering day care and outreach care of abandoned elders
• £200,000 – towards the Sathya Naga leprosy village, which has been supported by Salt of the Earth from the start
• £100,000 – towards creating an organic farm centre and supporting the establishment and knowledge transfer of organic kitchen and herbal gardens and their medical benefits to countless thousands of families.
• £200,000 – towards a health programme including over 4,000 cataract operations
• £300,000– working with marginalized groups such as gypsies and the parents of disabled children.

This achievement would not have been possible without our network of support and we would like to appreciate every person who has been able to donate. Thank you.

Indian Independence Day

Today it has been 64 years that India has been an independent state and this is something that we think is worth celebrating. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech today complemented farmers on producing a record level of food grains, raising healthy livestock and declared that the coming year would be one for a second green revolution in agriculture.

SCAD have been supporting farmers with their grain crops and livestock for over 25 years. Once every two or three months SCAD hold a large veterinary camp and all of the local farmers are invited to bring their cattle and goats in for immunizations or to have trainings on organic farming practices. The local farmers are encouraged to form farmer’s self help groups and in these groups they are facilitated to save money and create a micro-financing lending structure that is internal to the group. Additionally they are all encouraged to grow trees to increase the green cover and biodiversity in the area.

Last month, 18 people directly benefitted from the micro-finance scheme and were loaned the money from SCAD to buy animals. One of the farmers Ms. Shanthi, very happily said “such veterinary camps conducted by SCAD are very useful to us, if not for them we’d have to travel for nearly 20kms to take our cattle to the dispensary, and nearly a whole day is wasted. These camps are conducted regularly and we are able to immunize and de-worm the animals without any hassle or expenditure, and most excitingly of all, the mortality rate has reduced considerably.”

It is precisely the kind of development that SCAD do, facilitate and promote that today is time to be recognised and celebrated for the progressive development of India. Congratulations SCAD!

Sophie Blackman and Katie Allen run to the beat

 This month Sophie Blackman and Katie Allen started their training for ‘run to the beat‘ a half marathon based in London. Run to the beat is a Nike sponsored event that has live music playing around every corner to keep our budding athletes on the move. Sophie and Katie have both done 10K runs before but never a half marathon. All of the money raised will go directly to SCAD in India through Salt of the Earth.

With the money raised we are hoping that we can increase the amount of tree planting that happens in October in Tamil Nadu. October is generally the time of year when the monsoon rains come and therefore this is the best time for tree planting. One of SCAD’s primary objectives is to increase the biodiversity and tree cover in this area of India. They have found from over 25 years of experience planting trees that in the locations where they can re-introduce native species of trees the local temperature is cooler and rainfall is slightly increased. This has also been proved recently in China; to see a video on the regeneration of the Tibetan plateau click here.

If you want to be a part of the regeneration of the Tuticorin region of Tamil Nadu then please support Sophie and Katie in their ‘run to the beat’ HERE . 

Thank you