ABOUT SHANTIDHARA

The Shantidhara Social Service Society was founded by Mr. Maria Jojayya Addagatla, (Joji to his friends!). It is a registered NGO working in the Visakhapatnam area of Andhra Pradesh province, South India. Joji graduated in Education and he is a postgraduate diploma holder in Personnel Management and Labour Relations.

After completion of his academic studies, he worked as a Teacher in Ranga Reddy district from 1990 to 1994. In 1994 he joined the Srikakulam Social Service Centre, the sister-organization of the Catholic diocese of Srikakulam. This gave him an excellent opportunity to work with rural and tribal people of Srikakulam. With the intention of working with the rural people in Visakhapatnam district independently, he founded the Shantidhara Social Service Society. In 1997 he initiated this work with the rural people in the district of Visakhapatnam. Here he is working with some of the children.

While Shantidhara works in various ways for the local people, some of those reflected in the official site www.shantidhara.org (which has not been updated for a couple of years due to lack of time and resources, are no longer active and the key focus is now very firmly on the Children's Hostel Project which has grown from a small group of children (about 9 in 2004) to 31 now (June 2008).

The hostel itself is rented, inadequate for purpose now and getting somewhat overcrowded but it's the best that can be afforded just for now although there are plans to replace it with new dedicated accommodation and school. Here's the hostel!

So while there's lots going on, the purpose of this Manna Farm mini-site is to focus on the process, which we've already embarked upon on Joji's initiative, to purchase a small farm which will play a big part in ensuring food security for the children as we go forward. The deal is done, the early payments made (about half of the total) and we have until May 2009 to come up with the rest - roughly ˆ12,000 - and we get possession. If we can do it faster, so much the better! Can you help?

You can get a lot more information on the work of Shantidhara on the site www.shantidhara.org and lots of pictures too, and there's a facility for making donations by Paypal, so I won't repeat all of that here. Suffice it to say that the whole venture is kept going thanks to Joji's professional and humanitarian dedication and drive, with the support of the smallest handful of well wishers and supporters. As I said on the Home Page we really need a few more friends, so if you would like to be part of a really worthwhile idealistic and philanthropic body of work, in which you can be closely and personally involved, you've found us!

So let me tell you some more about the Food Challenge, as well as Our Plan, and some ways in which you might like to Get Involved!