Children's Parliament for Children in Slums

Pongal Celebration was made in all project sites of Prime Trust. Here is a brief story about it.

 India, being an agrarian country, brims with festivals that celebrate the harvest season. Pongal is one of the most popular harvest festivals in the country. The festival is celebrated by the Tamil community across the globe in mid-January every year. It, often, coincides with other harvest festivals across the subcontinent, such as Makar Sankranti. Pongal is celebrated around the same time as Lohri and Bihu.

 This year, it will be celebrated from January 14 to 17. The four-day festival honours the Sun god and commemorates the Sun's northward voyage. It also signifies the end of winter.

 History

Pongal is considered to be an ancient celebration, dating to the Sangam Age from 200 BC to 300 AD. It's originally a Dravidian harvest festival but finds mention in Sanskrit Puranas too. In the Sangam Age, Pongal was celebrated as Thai Niradal in the month of Margazhi. The festival was marked by the worship of goddess Katyayani through fasts and rituals. These festivities paved the way to today's Pongal.

 Food and cattle are a vital part of this celebration. According to a legend, it all started when Shiva's bull, Basava, delivered a wrong message to humans. Instead of directing humans to have an oil massage and bath every day and to eat once a month, Basava told everyone that they should eat every day and have an oil bath once a month. Thereafter, Shiva sent his bull to Earth to help humans to produce more food.

Significance

Pongal welcomes new beginnings. The festival is significant as it marks the end of a six-month-long night, according to Hindu mythology. With Pongal begins the day of the Gods, according to mythology.

The first day of the four-day festival is marked by the cutting of paddy. A puja is performed when farmers worship the Sun and anoint their ploughs and sickles with sandalwood paste before cutting paddy.

 The three other days contain other festivities. The second day is dedicated to the Sun God. The third day marks the worship of cattle. Later, the Pongal offered to the deities are distributed among the cattle and birds.

Now the schools for the lower classes were declared as holidays due to the fast spreading of pandemic and the children are at home.The leaders and members of the Chidren's Parliament were contacted over mobile and the following instructions were given to them:

They were briefed about Covid pandemic,  its nature of spreading fast and what are the precautions that have to be followed. The children were givent he following information:

1. Do not come out of their houses and play outside 
2. Always wear mask
3. Wash their hands with hand wash and use sanitizer always
4. Take bath every day and wear clean dress
5. Do not be in the crowd
6. If they have fever, to contact their doctor or visit the hospital
7. Educate their family members and their friends about the pandemic
8. To attend their onlne classes and revise their lessons
9. Contact us for any need or support our us
10. To contact their school regularly for any updates

The field coordinators will contact the group leaders and members regularly and provide advice. 

Dear Donors,

We thank you from the core of our hearts for your valuable support!

Prime Educational and Social Trust, Puducherry, (Prime Trust) India, and the beneficiaries wish you and your family "Happy New Year" and hope that year 2022 will bring you a lot of happiness and joy!

We are happy to share with you that without your support we would have faced a big crisis during the Covid pandemic! You helped us to overcome the international disaster.

We are happy and proud to share that Prime Trust is fully Vetted, Site visit verified, Superstar, Effective & top Ranked By GlobalGiving!! Thank you GlobalGiving Team to be a part of our mission and for your awesome training and guidance.

A huge thanks to all of our Supporters, Donors & Friends who made this possible! We couldn't accomplish any of this without your support. We did extremely well in the month of December 2021.

Become a fundraiser and part of our mission to support the poor and downtrodden.....

Prime Trust was established in the year 2002 with an intention to support women and children. We would achieve what we want to be with your association. Be a fundraiser for Prime Trust.

Prime Trust is involved with the following core activities:

Women Empowerment: Micro Credit, Vocational Training, Entrepreneurial Development program

Awareness Generation: Creational of awareness in the community on Women Rights, Child Rights, Child Labour, Domestic Violence, Health and Hygiene, Personal Hygiene, awareness on Covid, Cancer, non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure, and heart diseases.

Rural Health Mission:To support the unreached population by providing health care along with the government machinery, detection of diseases at the early stage, creating awareness on health schemes available with the government.

Rural Health Mission: With the support of donor agencies, we are helping rural communities to have toilets and drinking water facility

Support for the Homeless:We are supporting communities that are living on the streets of Puducherry by providing food, stationery for the children, and vocational training for the women.

Many thanks again for your support!!

We will continue to keep you updated about our work and events for the following months. Kindly send us your comments and suggestions!

Best Wishes
Team Prime Trust, India

Stay healthy & Keep physical distancing!!

New Year, new hopes and newer beginnings-All of us ardently wait for the clock to strike 12 and usher in the New Year. It's such a celebratory, positive time which keeps everyone in good spirits! And this New Year is no different!

We are sure that 2020 has been an emotionally testing and turbulent time, thanks to the pandemic, a lot of us are keeping our fingers crossed for 2022! There have been many learnings we got from the year-from safeguarding our health, being supportive of each other to spreading kindness and now, it's time to make some wishes anew and spread the holiday cheer.

While New Year's Day celebrations kick-off when the clock strikes midnight, New Year's Eve and Day are also special festivals which are celebrated differently across the world! From traditional customs, seeking blessings from elders, get-togethers and greetings, people from everywhere follow unique traditions to get the luck and good fortune ringing! For example, while some places see the illumination of lights, fireworks to mark the 'last holiday' of the year, in places like Japan and Spain, it's customary to eat special food items like soba noodles, grapes, lentils to usher in good luck.

As we step into 2022, it's important to make the right blessings, not take things for granted and spread the cheer with one another! It may be difficult for many to celebrate in person, but the right wishes and greetings can definitely make your loved ones' day and spread prosperity in the air!

Medical checkup was conducted for the children of Children's Parliament. The program was done in collaboration with HAMAP, a French foundation offering healh care to the underprivileged. Their team visited with doctors and other paramedical staff members. Regular check of the children with their height, weight and other parameters were asessed. Medications such as vitamin tablets and deworming tablets were distributed. It is reported that children are healthy and suggested tha they should eat more fruits. Some children require eye checkup and will be taken up after New Year.

The event was conducted at a local school in Puducherry. The school administration helped us in providing space and other requirements.