Ann Peck, a Vermont resident, started the Little Lilies
Crèches in April, 2002, with the help of high school
students from Geneva International School in Switzerland, who
return each year to India for continued work on the project.
It is located in Palangi, near Kodaikanal.
Grace Kids’ Center was
started in Kodaikanal in 2000 with the help of the founder of
the program, Betsy Dailey, who modeled the Crèche after Montessori
ideals of educating the individual child to learn life skills
and become independent. It is our biggest crèche with
50 children.
Helping Hearts Crèches was opened in response
to government requirements in an area where our board members grew
up near Poriayar. This village is located only a kilometer from
the coast and its families suffered loss of homes, land and livelihoods
due to the
Tsunami disaster, after first suffering severe
draught conditions.
In October, 2003, Swiss students from Geneva
again returned to India to open another crèche called, Peach
Tree Crèche, and promised
to fund it for five years. Their commitment to the crèche
project is commendable and a good example of what can be done by
young minds and hard work.
Crèches are run by a volunteer board of
six members called the Betsy Elizabeth Trust, named for an American
woman, Betsy Dailey, who is devoted to the rural poor of south
India like her family two generations before her. Indian and American
board members collaborate on ideas for maintaining quality standards
for children’s care and target villages for future outreach.
