St Mary's Educational & Charitable Trust - Andhra Pradesh near Eluru

Welcome to St Mary’s Educational & Charitable Trust

In Andhra Pradesh near Eluru, Pedavgi, rural life is hard, half of the population of these villages live below the poverty line and many are illiterate. There is not enough work and so families in this area must struggle to survive. Landlords very sadly use child labourers to work on cotton and rice crops or to look after livestock. Too many under the age of 14 earn a living in these fields helping support their families whilst many others are left on the streets trying to earn enough money just to buy food. Education doesn’t seem important to most, schooling costs money and when money is short then it is education that is missed.

Poverty eliminates any chance of an education that these children might be given and without help the poverty cycle will never be broken.

Many children are living in unimaginable situations of squaller, broken homes and child labour and we believe that one thing that can help break the cycle for these children is to have a proper education and to be entitled to that education from early childhood, providing them with the knowledge and skills necessary to lead a successful and healthy adult life.

And so St Mary’s Trust was set up to just that, to provide children with an education to last them forever whilst also providing stability and security, mentally, socially and spiritually, giving them back the childhood they deserve with food, shelter, clothing and education. St Mary’s Charitable Trust is one of many success stories that is making a difference to a child’s life. Thank you for showing an interest in our charity and the children of Eluru Pedavgi.

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  A Visit from Sr Clare18th September 2024

  Sister Clare from the Mater Ecclesiae Congregation visited to inaugurate the SMC Hospital.

  The Ecclesiae Congregation have been an enormous support financially and spiritually for this project for which we are truly grateful.

  There is little opportunity for medical care in the local area of Pedavegi. This can be because of the distance needed to reach the nearest hospital. It can be because you are mainly required to pay for health care, and it can be simply because of fear.

  It has been a long-held ambition of the Trust to bridge this gap and to provide much needed health support to the area in which the boarding home and school are situated, but until recently it hasn’t been the right time to embark on such a project because of the work and focus given to the children and the boarding home project.

  Once the time was right, work began and from a simple piece of land next to the boarding home has arisen a fully functioning hospital to provide for the area.

  Work now continues both on the site as a hospital and in the UK to fund this project alongside the on-going work and support SMC gives to children in need.