Loyola gets International award

SIFE Loyola's development work among toddy tapper women at Chetti village in Tuticorin had fetched them this award.
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CHENNAI: Loyola, always  a face of academic excellence, this time wins an international award for social empowerment. The Loyala students  who were part of the  initiative called SIFE ( Students in free enterprise), a world wide network involved in community development, had  won the fourth place at the SIFE World Cup, held at Los Angeles. Earlier this year, SIFE Loyola was chosen to represent India from 65 colleges which took part in the national competiton. In appreciation of this they  were awarded a  cash prize of Rs 13,79,750 by Erbacher Foundation, Germany.

This money will be used for their wood apple jam project for the economic empowerment of tribals from Javadi Hills.  Their work among toddy tapper women at Chetti village in Tuticorin, empowering them to make a  nutritious fruit mix product from the  produce of palmyrh  called ‘Amudham’ had fetched them this award.

Prof Joshphine Jayashanthi, faculty advisor of SIFE Loyola, said, “ The college makes it mandatory for every student to spend 120 hours at the SIFE projects, contributing their time, energy and skills towards this community work. All our students enjoy this process, as it opens up their world views of things in the community around them.”

They have also  taught and financed micro credits to 20,000 villagers for organic farming in Tirunelveli district and started SHGs for manual scavengers. Prof Josphine said, “ We soon plan to open up our own supermarket to showcase  and market the products made by the villagers for the benefit of city dwellers, and the money will really empower the people.”

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