Jacob Thundyil

Founder

Founder of People's Rural Education Movement (PREM)

Jacob Thundyil is the founder of People's Rural Education Movement (PREM) (1982)[1], an Indian non-profit working on tribal welfare, healthcare and education from Berhampur.

Jacob Thundyil is an Indian development worker who founded the People's Rural Education Movement (PREM) and serves as its president. PREM was established in the early 1980s in Odisha and works with Adivasi, Dalit, fisherfolk and landless communities on education, health, livelihoods and rights.

Career

PREM began work in Odisha and describes its approach as combining mukti, or liberation from social and economic oppression, with pragati, or development. From its base in Odisha it has extended its work through partner organisations in a number of Indian states.

Thundyil sits on the governing board of the International Network of Alternative Financial Institutions and has served on the board of the Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology. He was one of the founding members of the Voluntary Action Network of India and convenes the National Advocacy Council for Development of Indigenous Communities.[2][3]

People's Rural Education Movement (PREM)

PREM is a secular voluntary society founded in 1982 and headquartered at Mandiapalli near Berhampur in Ganjam district, Odisha. It works on education, healthcare, livelihoods, governance and the rights of women and children among Adivasi, Dalit, fisherfolk and other marginalised communities. Its health work includes mobile health units and community awareness programmes aimed at reducing maternal and infant mortality in remote villages, alongside literacy campaigns and agro-forestry programmes in Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal.

People's Rural Education Movement (PREM) reports the following, on its own site:

Through a network partnership of over 150 independent voluntary and people’s organizations, PREM reaches more than 5,000,000 people in 16 states of India through various development programmes, networks and campaigns.
Under a major DFID-funded project, 223 communities planted 4.5 lakh fruit-bearing seedlings across 30,000 acres of shifting cultivation area and barren lands
A historic 100-day mass movement across 1,000 villages in Ganjam, Gajapati, and Kandhamal to achieve functional literacy among marginalized communities