Gandhi Rural Rehabilitation Center
GRRC Located in Alampoondi, a small town in Tamil Nadu, India the center began in 1983 as a small weaver's collective and training center. Today it serves the needs of the disabled community in the surrounding villages. To fund its outreach programs the GRRC produces handloomed natural-dyed organic cotton cloth, which is utilized in its tailoring workshop. The center also runs an herbal garden which produces medicinal plants and harvests spirulina along with a plant nursery. The center has planted over 250,000 trees in the local area. The center also features as daycare center (for special-needs children and young adults) that is free of charge and run through individual donations.
The main mission of the GRRC is to provide community-based rehabilitation within the village's social structures. In 1987 the center began providing polio diagnosis and treatment - around the year 2000 new cases of polio were eradicated in the community and the focus was shifted to other crippling disabilities. An orthopedic workshop produces and maintains calipers, crutches, and artificial limbs and can arrange surgeries when needed.