Seven Sisters Development Assistance

Seven Sisters Development Assistance(SeSTA) works to improve the livelihood of people living in Assamese villages through social mobilization, livelih Read moreood promotion, natural resource management, engaging with youth, and developing competence in people. SHG’s are self-help groups where women gather to discuss financial, societal, and any other problems, giving them an opportunity to voice their concerns. The Village Organization consists of 2-3 representatives from each of 8-12 SHGs, where women can address issues regarding the village in terms of health, government, women's inequality, and other social concerns. Sanghamitra Mahila Sangh is a federation formed by two members from each Village Organization to unite women and help take action on social and financial issues. SeSTA works to improve livelihoods by employing scientific methods and equipment to improve yield in crops like paddy, maize & vegetables as well as to improve livestock rearing practices. It has reached out to more than 4500 families through its agricultural initiatives. It also helps farmer families sustain themselves by efficiently managing their natural resources. It manages these resources by promoting organic agriculture, promoting livelihood in villages located on the fringes of Manas National Park, enhancing sericulture and integrated farming systems, promoting low-cost shallow tube wells (STW) and wells, and working to renovate the Dong Diversion Based Irrigation system in an effort to protect Kharif crops during dry spells and increase crop area of Rabi season. It works with youth to help them find employment. It has also initiated a Youth Centre (Centre for Youth Advancement-CYA) at Sidli Block, trained a group of Youths in scientific agricultural practices, collaborated with PARFI for skill building and placement assistance to youths, and built a cadre of youths as Para vets. SeSTA trained around 88 youths in Sewing, Knitting and Embroidery. SeSTA’s Human Resource Development Unit focuses on recruiting quality staff to work on grassroots projects. Executive Traineeship Programme will focus on grooming executives in order to equip them with skills necessary for being hired to work in the development sector in North East India. SeSTA also trains competent locals to work on facilitating SeSTA’s work. Community Service Providers (CSPs) are local people who have been trained to reliably provide goods and services that the community needs and Community Resource Providers (CRPs) are local people who have been groomed to focus on change and growth in the community. 42 CRPs and 20 CSPs have been groomed and are working in the field. SeSTA has reached 8000 families in 100 villages across four districts of Assam: Chirang, Bongaigaon, Goalpara and Kamrup (rural).

Registered in the year 2011 as a society, SeSTA from then has been working with the vision of creating a vibrant, democratic and developed society with peace and harmony where every citizen is empowered and lives a dignified life. SeSTA believes in the process of Nirman (Constructive Development) and has been engaged with the mission of catalysing inclusive and sustainable development in North East India by enhancing the capabilities of the rural communities

Registered in the year 2011 as societies act, Seven Sisters Development Assistance is currently engaged with around 75,000 households to strengthen their livelihoods and thereby build resilience of the communities. Over the years SeSTA has been engaged very closely with the communities and has been able to address some key challenges in the community and thereby have been able to achieve some key milestones in its more than a decade-long engagement. Few of them are as follows:-
● Enhanced productivity of Paddy by 50% for 30,000 households
● Promoted Nutrition Garden with 35,000 HHs
● Strengthened 6,000 SHGs, 530 VOs and 660 PGs
● Facilitated 20,000 HHs in accessing various government schemes
● Leveraged INR 16.55 crores from MGNREGs and have been able to generate 2,50,000 additional person days
● Recipient of Chief Minister Award for Community Development, Polestar award for best livelihood promoting agency, Best NGO in accounts & finance process in NE, Top 10 NGO award under Environment category by HCL Foundation
● Over 750 community cadres promoted in revenue model and more than 350
● Around 250 university pass out have completed the Executive Traineeship program with most of the professionals serving in premier institutions in the sector along with SeSTA.
● 122 government staff trained over the years.
● Innovations such as Family Based Livelihood Planning Tool, Revolving Fund model etc. initiated