My name is Kate Hartley, I am 24 years old and I live in the South East of England. At the age of 18 I went travelling on my gap year to India, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and Laos. Following this I completed my Music degree at Southampton University in 2009. Whilst continuing with my performing and teaching the harp I started a new job for a Community Interest Company which made films promoting environmental and sustainable education to Primary Schools. In 2010 I embarked on a new more challenging role as the PA and Office Manager for the internationally celebrated artist Alexander...

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At SCAD we are concerned with any initiative which will help us to protect the environment locally. One of the best projects that we have is the Soil Fertility Project. This is an ingenious initiative which provides SCAD farmers with two different organic products to use on the land to increase fertility. The first product that we use in the soil is called Biochar. Biochar is a very nutrient rich type of charcoal. The charcoal is made through a specific process called pyrolysis which entails burning organic materials such as straw, rice husks and wood at very high temperatures so that they keep...

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At SCAD we are interested in empowerment that takes place when people challenge existing norms and culture to improve their well being and create their own development. Our SCAD Women's Self Help Groups (WSHGs) have challenged social norms not once but twice! In the first instance women transformed the culture of being forced to stay in their homes. Initially when the women gathered together for meetings they had difficulty coming out of their homes because it was not traditional. In the beginning women were scorned and sometimes threatened. With a lot of support from SCAD and internal strength...

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The Tirunelveli District Level Sports Day for mentally disabled children conducted by the District Sports Authority of Tirunelveli was held this year on the 19th November, 2011, at the Anna Stadium, Palayamkottai. 243 Mentally challenged children from 17 special schools in the District participated in the sports day with great enthusiasm. Five children per school were permitted to participate in the sports events and three boys and two girls representing SCAD Anbu Illam, Chereanmahadevi, were taken to the Anna Stadium, to participate in different events SCAD has encouraged and motivated the mentally...

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Trees can help people in many different ways; they help facilitate water, they provide shelter and warmth, food and nutrition and can also provide a valuable income. At SCAD we are planting trees for all of these things. SCAD help farmers with their irrigation systems, especially helping them to perform drip irrigation, which enables the trees to grow in this harsh, almost desert, climate. Good trees can also provide an income for their timber as long as there is a way of making sure that they can be re planted. The people of Tamil Nadu have been experiencing the effects of climate change for many...

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Water is essential for life and every human being must to be able to access clean drinking water. Our vision in SCAD is to make this possible across Tamil Nadu. Trees are essential for water as they hold water in the ground, increasing the ground water storage and bringing more water to wells. They also stop the water from running off the surface of the soil and causing flash flooding and erosion, which is increasingly common in this location when the monsoons do fall. Cletus Babu, the founder of SCAD Charity, says that with all the planting trees that SCAD has done the area now “gets the highest...

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Welcome to Social Change and Development, also known as SCADcharity! We are an Indian Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in Tamil Nadu, South India. For the last 27 years we have been doing outreach work empowering rural communities and facilitating sustainable development. We work in communities in many different ways offering services in education, health, financial support, income generation programmes, farming and skills training, such as sewing, weaving and pottery. We also have many initiatives to protect the natural environment and we are dedicated to supporting and empowering...

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