About Us

About Us

Organization Brief

SPEECH is a grassroots community development organization established in 1987. We strengthen grassroots democracy and promote good governance byfacilitating everyone’s meaningful participation and promoting self- sustained development of the vulnerable sections in rural TamilNadu.

SPEECH is committed to realizing the human potential of disadvantaged people through a wide range of activities. We aim to annihilate biases and stereotypes that emerge out of caste, religion, linguistic or community identities in the society.

Organizational Objectives

SPEECH partners the developmental efforts of the vulnerable sections towards their empowerment in society. We build on the community’s own assets and strengths through offering:

  • Extensive field level knowledge on child protection mechanisms.
  • Youth development activities.
  • Access to free legal aid, especially for mill workers.
  • Promotion of gender equality.
  • Access to work-related social protection such as ESI and EPF as well as other social security Schemes.
  • Mental health awareness and support.
  • Community-based action research and ways to measure the progress of community groups towards independence and self-direction.

All of our work has three key areas of expertise:

Participation and Community Ownership

Aiming for sustainable development, SPEECH follows a participatory approach so that ownership is inculcated from the beginning.

Child Rights Protection

SPEECH tries to restore the rights of children by sensitizing different stakeholders, developing children’sskills and leadership qualities and creating opportunities for them to exercise their participatory rights.

Mobilizing, Organizing, And Facilitating Community Collectives

SPEECHbuilds up and train community groups so they can protect children’s and women’s rights.This often includes helping families learn about traditional and nutritional food practices; creating group-based alternate livelihood options;networking with other child-centered organizations;and helping government deliver assistance to children more effectively. We enable community groups to mobilize local resources as well as tapping into government resourcesfor development.