Prema Gopalan is an Indian social activist. She co-founded SPARC ( Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers  ) in 1984. She then founded and has been executive director of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) for over 20 years, supporting poor rural women in entrepreneurial schemes. She is also well known for disaster relief work in Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Gopalan has received awards from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the United Nations Development Programme. Early life Prema Gopalan was born in Pune, India. She holds an MA in social work and completed a M.Phil in Sociology and Research Methodology . Career Prema Gopalan is a co-founder with Sheela Patel of SPARC (Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers) in 1984. She started Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP ) in 1993, aiming to put rural poor women at the center of decentralized and democratic methods of self-management.  SSP functioned as a self-education network within SPARC until it (in association with the Government of Maharashtra) redesigned and implemented a widespread community participation strategy across 1200 villages in the earthquake-hit districts of Latur and Osmanabad. Gopalan has also worked with support efforts following the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and floods in Bihar and URL SSP has helped female entrepreneurs  start businesses in these recovering zones.
Prema Gopalan is an Indian social activist. She co-founded the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC ) in 1984. She then founded and has been executive director of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) for over 20 years, supporting poor rural women in entrepreneurial schemes. She is also well known for disaster relief work in Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Gopalan has received awards from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the United Nations Development Programme. Early life Prema Gopalan was born in Pune, India. She holds an MA in social work and completed a M.Phil in sociology and research methodology . Career Prema Gopalan was a co-founder with Sheela Patel of SPARC in 1984. She started SSP in 1993, aiming to put rural poor women at the center of decentralized and democratic methods of self-management. - SSP functioned as a self-education network within SPARC until it (in association with the Government of Maharashtra) redesigned and implemented a widespread community participation strategy across 1200 villages in the earthquake-hit districts of Latur and Osmanabad. Gopalan has also worked with support efforts following the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and floods in Bihar and Kerala.- SSP has helped female entrepreneurs to start businesses in these recovering zones.
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SPARC (
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(SPARC
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Sociology and Research Methodology
sociology and research methodology
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(Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers)
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Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP )
SSP
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URL
Kerala.-
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