MITHRA FOUNDATION - India

"Mithra means 'Friends.' It works for our poor friends who are in need, by friends who want join the fight against poverty."

The Mithra Foundation was started in 1992 by Joe Rosario, a medical doctor/clinical psychologist who has worked with poor children living in the slums of Sriramapuram (Bangalore) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Working with mental health professionals and development workers from India's National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Rosario started a program called "cognitive skills stimulation" to help underprivileged children acquire the fundamental skills needed to cope with the demands of life and become active partners in their own development. Working with Joe is Bella Rosario, who has been a development worker for the last 20 years both at micro and macro levels, and also a field officer of Oxfam. Bella is an advocate for gender justice and strongly opposes the practise of child labour in a healthy society.

Mithra's work is based on the following observations:

• Poverty is man-made and increases if political will and grassroots involvement are weak.
• The poor are becoming more vulnerable physically, psychologically, socially, and economically.
• Change can occur only if the poor are actively involved in the process of their development. 
  

Mithra strives to equip underprivileged and culturally deprived children with a solid learning-skills foundation and assists them with their emotional development. Programs such as cultural competitions, summer camps, and field trips provide pre-schoolers with cognitive, language, motor, emotional and social development skills. For older children, many of whom drop out during primary education and become child laborers (particularly girls), supplemental efforts integrate education with life values. In addition, Mithra advocates against child labor and provides communities with basic and non-formal education, skills training and rehabilitation programs.

Mithra also stands for women in distress and intervenes at psychosocial and economic levels. Within communities and households where the caste system pervades, women do not have equal access to food or assurances of well-being. For women in distress, Mithra’s activities include training sessions, capacity building, counseling and group work. Legal education and assistance, savings, credit and income generation programs are also undertaken.

Mithra takes up issues that affect whole communities as well and campaigns for clean water, roads, sewage disposal, education on land rights, anti-alcohol programs, and human rights education. Mithra's Human Rights Education Program trains 8th & 9th grade teachers in city schools to integrate human rights education into their curriculum. The program also conducts regular workshops, training programs and meetings for parents and teachers on child-related issues.