History of Senhagiri

Snehagiri Society was founded and registered in the year 1979. Fr. Paul Kodiyan C.M.I is the founding Director of the Society. He was born at Kuzhoor Panchayat near Mala in Trichur district on 16th November, 1939. Fr. Paul Kodiyan was ordained in 1969. Even prior to his priest hood, he was deeply concerned towards the down-trodden people in the rural areas. As a religious priest he turned his active life into a saga of selfless service. During his pastoral career he devoted his time for the uplift of the poor people. With the peoples participation he helped the poor people for thatching their hutment. He also stressed the need for education of their children. Thus he developed social awareness among them. He also provided training and employment to the poor and unemployed youth of the undeveloped villages of these areas. With the help of the State Government he arranged in setting up of several Child Care Centres for young children under Integrated Child Development Scheme and other socioeconomic & rural development projects, drinking water supply schemes, construction of roads and culverts, small scale industries for training and employment etc.

St. Theresa's Vanithakshemam

Under the women welfare wing of the society, a separate charitable society named "St. Theresa's Vanithakshemam" was registered in the year 1979. It was exclusively for the welfare of women.

Umbrella Manufacturing Unit

For providing employment opportunities for women on November 14th ,1979 an Umbrella unit was started. In this institution 75 women were given job. Later problems arose regarding funds, place, training etc. Within three months of hard labour, the girls were able to understand all the technical facts involved in making an umbrella. The experts took the role of a quality controller ensuring that the umbrellas made by the ladies were technically perfect by detailed scrutining of the finished product. The Bank of Cochin helped financially. As time passed latest techniques in advertising were introduced by other umbrella manufacturers. This caused a great downfall in marketting our products for past three years.

Housing Scheme for Low and Middle Income Group Families

Housing for low and middle income group families was introduced first at Snehagiri Project in 1980. A plot was purchased for this scheme. Houses for the scheme were built by arranging bank loans with low interest.

Khadi Weaving Unit

In view of providing employment opportunities for women. A Khadi weaving unit with 33 looms was started under the State Khadi Board. This provided training and employment to over 50 women. This unit produces Khadi cotton cloth of differed varieties, by hand woven process

As an auxiliary to the main unit Khadi Spinning centre with 50 Charkkas, providing training and employment to 50 women was also established to the weaving unit. For sale of Khadi goods produced by jobless poor women by hand process method, two Khadi Bhavans (Khadi Sales Outlets) were opened, one at Mala and another one at Trichur.

Tailoring Centre for women

A tailoring centre for women was started in 1979 under the women welfare society called St.Theresa's Vanithakshemam, a charitable society registered specially for women as a sister concern of Snehagiri Society. 75 women were provided with sewing machines. At this centre lot of women learned cutting and tailoring of garments. In the beginning, women got free tailoring machines from social welfare board after completing the course.

In 1983 "Snehagiri Tailoring Centre" got Government recognition and it reached a standard of an educational institution. This enabled students to appear for the lower and higher courses of KGTE-TEN which is recognised by the state Government. After the completion of the course students got employment in public as well as private institutions including schools. Many women took ordinary training in tailoring for self employment and are leading a successful life.

Later on classes for embroidery, needle work also started. Here admission is for a maximum of 48 students. Special classes are also conducted for ordinary students in morning and afternoons. Concession in fees are also given for poor students.

Commercial Institute

Stenography is a course which has job potential for ever. Those who pass such courses are never ever unemployed. A stenographer is an unavoidable factor for any establishment. On first of January 1982, Snehagiri Secretarial Institute was established under Snehagiri society. In the beginning there were four English type-writing machines and 18 students. We opened a big future for students by charging meagre fees. Now typing of different languages are taught here which enabled the students to study according to their taste. This was a blessing for students who go outside Kerala in search of a job. Now more than 100 students are studying here with minimum facilities. We require more numbers of typewriting and duplicating machines for this purpose.

A stenographer should be an individual, filled with discipline, patience and craftness while executing duties. We await for each student of this institute to reach unattained heights. The concern climbed many steps to victory & occupy a big place in this field by the grace of God.  

Ready-made manufacturing unit

In recent time it is a fashion to go for ready-made garments. While the fashions change from time to time, the ready-made market also rises to occasion. The Society understood the foreign-trade and the employment opportunities of this field. Thus he started a Readymade garment unit on 11th October 1989 with the recognition of Government Khadi Board. The first order was for shirts from a foreign buyer. The consignment was exported through ship. We exported bulk quantities of these garments to Canada and Germany, using raw-material & technology from textile centres like Tirupur.

Snehagiri ITC

As a part of uplifting the youth, an I. T. C was started with the affiliation of the Central Government. Here students are provided with trades of Secretarial Practices, Stenograpy, beautician.