Registration Details

Friends of Tribals Society NGO Organization Members

Friends of Tribals Society Source Funds

Contact details

Friends of Tribals Society Key Issues and Operational Areas, Major Activiities & Achivements

Operational Districts: Visakhapatnam, Kurnool, Chittoor,East Kameng,Kokrajhar, Morigaon, Nagaon, Sivasagar,Raigarh, Korba , Rajnandgaon,Patan , Kheda, Dohad , Tapi,Chatra, Kodarma, Palamu, Hazaribagh,Bidar,Wayanad

Operational States: ANDHRA PRADESH, ARUNACHAL PRADESH, ASSAM, CHHATTISGARH, GUJARAT, JHARKHAND, KARNATAKA, KERALA

AchieveMents: Friends of Tribals Society (FTS) was established in 1989 at Kolkata by some eminent philanthropists with the object of all-round development of tribals in our country. Following Swami Vivekanand’s dictum ‘Where the child cannot come to the school, the school must go to the child’ the founding members of FTS started the concept of One Teacher Schools (Ekal Vidyalalya) wherein a teacher, usually an educated young person from the village, teaches about 25-30 children of class 1, 2 and 3. These informal schools are conducted for three hours every day and apart from elementary education the children are also imparted basic health training including yoga and exercise and knowledge of Indian culture and heritage and handicrafts etc. Training of these teachers is also done once every month and for five days every six months. As on September 30, 2016 FTS along with its associate organizations were running 52453 schools in the remote villages across the country and FTS alone was running 29463 schools. Monitoring of running of these schools is done by an intricate system of administration at state, district and sub district level and the data on running and working of the schools in centrally collected at the society’s head office and analysed every month. With time and in keeping with the changing needs of the times, FTS has also expanded the scope of its work in the villages. Under Awareness Education, they discuss various issues for benefit of the village like eradication of alcoholism, settlement of their mutual issues and the government schemes for the benefit of the villagers.This programme creates a very healthy atmosphere in the village. Whenever necessary, FTS sewabratis help them in filing application under Right to Information Act. (RTI). Moreover the scope of education was expanded not only to include health and hygiene but also development education. Under development education the villagers are encouraged to produce fertilizer from cow dung and Pesticides from cow urine. The children of FTS schools are encouraged to plant at least one sapling each year. These are normally planted in and around the houses of the villagers so that they can take care of the sapling and also become owner of the trees. This also develops a creative attitude among children. Impact of FTS’ work: Due to the various activities run by FTS in the villages there is improvement in the state of education both for the children and the guardians. The villagers are gradually leading a more hygienic life, their financial condition is improving on account of various development activities. They are also getting rid of addiction to alcohol and the most important aspect is that with inculcation of moral values they also develop dedication to Mother Bharat.