Pudiyador Association for Community Empowerment

Pudiyador appreciates the critical gap between impoverished children’s school education and their real-life needs. Pudiyador works to bridge this gap through after-school programs for preschoolers, children and teenagers in addition to comprehensive community empowerment programs for adults. The Preschoolers Program is designed to build physical and cognitive development as well as increase literacy skills in Tamil and English - creating solid foundations to balance the equation and give disadvantaged kids a headstart in their education. The Children’s Program was created to address the ‘all-pass system’ used by the public and private school systems within Tamil Nadu (TN), India. All-pass systems are used to manage large numbers of students, but result in higher rates of children with poor foundations in literacy and numeracy. This is often due to larger class sizes, and low student to teacher ratios. Pudiyador believes that solid foundations in literacy and numeracy will likely increase chances of children completing their education, pursuing further studies, and contributing to our mission of breaking cycles of intergenerational poverty. The Children’s after-school Program is designed to provide a supportive environment to solidify these foundations, build confidence in verbal communication as well as reinforce positive social development. Pudiyador believes that holistic education must include exposure to a wide range of extracurricular activities with lots of time for play! As a continuation of the after-school programming, the Early Teens’ Program is designed to provide a safe and fun learning space for at-risk teens. Pudiyador believes that it is important for teenagers to receive consistent support in completing their education. Additionally, Pudiyador aims to address the lack of gender and sex education provided within the school system. Finally, all programs emphasize school attendance as this is not always an existing standard.

Pudiyador’s after-school programs are divided into three age groups to foster the intellectual, social and cultural development of children.
- Preschoolers after-school Program (ages 3-5)
- Children’s after-school Program (ages 6-10)
- Early Teens’ after-school Program (ages 11-14)