Women's Organization for Rural Development
Organization background

Women's Organization for Rural Development (WORD) is an organization dedicated to uplifting rural women by educating them on their rights and providing them with vocational training. The organization also runs health camps in villages, that focus on health, hygiene and reproductive health care. They also focus on HIV prevention, care and support for female sex workers. The organization also constructs community toilets, drainage systems & toilets in homes; runs conservation projects, sustainable agriculture, animal rights and clean water initiatives.

Project Background

The Namakkal District in Tamil Nadu, India is a drought prone, highly rural area where most of the villagers work in agriculture but do not own land. There are also 3 spinning mills that exploit the cheap labor of approximately 300-350 young girls. Parents send their male children to school and their female children to work in factories/textile mills. These children are denied wages, forced to work 12 hours a day and are subject to sexual abuse, harrasment and torture. These villagers are unaware of their rights as they are extremely poor and uneducated. A lack of alternative employment opportunities and vocational skills bind them to these harrowing conditions.

WORD will run an intervention program that will identify at-risk girls from 30 surrounding villages; provide them with 6 months of vocational skills in tailoring and life skills; provide them with job placements in the textile industry or empower them to run their own businesses by providing them with loans & mentorship opportunities.

GKF contributions to WORD