Mithra Rehabilitation Centre in Chennai goes green with Australian government aid

The Mithra Rehabilitation Centre, Anna Nagar, which has been serving special children the last four decades, has gone green with the installation of a 20 KW solar power plant sponsored by Australia.

CHENNAI: The Mithra Rehabilitation Centre, Anna Nagar, which has been serving special children the last four decades, has gone green with the installation of a 20 KW solar power plant sponsored by the Australian government under its direct aid programme.

The Australian High Commissioner to India Harinder Sidhu inaugurated the unit and dedicated it to the children of Mithra on Friday.

She told the media that the Australian Government spent nearly 2.80 lakh Australian dollars on social welfare in South India annually, of which 29,500 dollars (Rs 15 lakhs) was budgeted for Mithra’s green energy initiative.

S Sukumar, director, Mithra, said, “Mithra Rehabilitation Centre’s daily requirement is about 10-12 KW, but since we are expanding, we installed the 20 KW solar power plant. We are generating more than what is required and have asked the electricity board to provide net metering which enables us to supply the excess power to the grid. We can cut down the electricity bill by about Rs 15,000 monthly,” he said.

Meanwhile, Harinder Sidhu went round the rehabilitation centre campus and interacted with the special children. In fact, Mithra was founded in 1977 by an Austrailan nun, Sr. Mary Theodore.

Mithra Rehabilitation Centre now has 135 special children affected by various deformities like cerebral palsy, occupational disorders etc.

Children here have residential facility and some of them have made the centre their home for the last 30 years. Some of the parents work as full-time caretakers.

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