Welcome to Sania Trust, the suicide prevention program of the Shantidhara Social Service Society.

Sania Trust is a new initiative of the Shantidhara Social Service Society, and is commencing by launching a program to address the problem of suicide across a cluster of Andhra Pradesh villages.

Once a successful program is established, we would love to replicate it in other areas in partnership with local NGOs.

Shantidhara Social Service Society, a registered NGO, serves the rural poor in a cluster of villages near the port city of Visakhapatnam. Its central project is a boarding hostel which provides accommodation, clothing, food and education to the children of the rural poor. Mr. Maria Jojayya Addagatla, the founder and director of Shantidhara, also works to help the communities from which these children come. The poverty and social problems encountered in these villages too often lead to suicide. You can learn more about Shantidhara at www.shantidhara.org

There are many agencies - in fact many thousands of them, big and small, focusing on the alleviation of poverty. And there are many government programs, some effective and some ineffective, focusing on the same issue, as well as on social and agricultural development, education, women's issues, health issues and so on. Such are the magnitudes of the problems being addressed, all of these efforts will remain necessary for a very long time. And whatever success they achieve will be too late for many....

....BECAUSE there are very few agencies or initiatives focused on the issue of suicide. In many places there are no helplines, no refuges, no support systems, no debt relief, no community leadership, no listening ear, no programs to help structure a way out of the clutches of the high interest moneylenders. No hope!

For all its world renowned economic progress, about half of all India's children are malnourished. And we know that some 75,000 Indian people commit suicide every year.

While the usual mix of societal issues, which cause suicide to be a problem everywhere in the world, also apply in India, the problem here is greatly exacerbated by poverty as even the most cursory piece of research quickly demonstrates. Waves of debt-laden farmers commit suicide in the wake of crop failures or cotton price problems. Many women do likewise, often beaten by abusive or alcoholic husbands - and reduced to penniless desperation but with nowhere to go to escape their misery. Too often, their own families don't want to know...they have too many problems of their own.

Sania Trust will focus on specific measures aimed at identifying and supporting people at risk of taking the final desperate measure to escape their misery and hopelessness.

You can help with a simple donation or, if you have time, skills which you think might be helpful, or a wish to volunteer to work with a community, please contact us.

The simplest way to make a donation is via the Paypal facility on the Shantidhara site here:

 In the 'Payment For' field, just specify Sania Trust. This will ensure that your donation goes to support our suicide prevention program as opposed to Shantidhara's other works.

For more information about the work of Shantidhara Social Service Society, please visit our general website www.shantidhara.org or contact us at shantidhara@yahoo.com