OUR PROGRAMS
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Partners Current Partners Approximately 500 children are receiving quality education through the schools supported by NFI in Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. Besides, NFI has fostered institutions like Action Northeast Trust (the ANT) to act as an education and resource centre for strengthening civil society in the region. Synroplang for Social Transformation (SST) In the East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, NFI supports Synroplang for Social Transformation to run alternative schools. Called KJAs, these schools have children’s aspirations at the center of their focus. Initiated after seeing the plight of village shepherd children who are victims of rigid social institutions, class stratification and discriminating rules by village elites through traditional and regressive governance structures, KJAs today have expanded from one to four villages and cater to 100 children of four to 14 years of age. SNEHA NFI supports SNEHA, that enables children of one of the most politically and socially deprived communities in Arunachal Pradesh, the Chakmas, to access good education. By running a good school in a remote village in Arunachal, SNEHA serves 363 children studying in various grades, from kindergarten to Grade VII. After facing immense hardships and challenges, SNEHA is now receiving slow recognition of its good quality schooling: state officials are visiting SNEHA school. Taking note of the good quality of education, parents from non-Chakma backgrounds too have started sending their children to SNEHA’s school. Villagers have a great sense of ownership for the school. They have contributed by way of donating land, labour and local building materials. There are also cases of students from faraway villages staying at homes of teachers in the absence of any boarding facilities in SNEHA. The Institute for Development Action (IdeA), the ANT (the Action Northeast Trust) NFI is instrumental in facilitating the setting up of a ‘Northeast based development school’ in Assam. Called the Institute for Development Action (IdeA), this first of its kind institution set up by The ANT was founded with the purpose of strengthening civil society by catering to the capacity building needs of grassroots development workers in the region. Within a year, IDeA has organized 29 courses that include 12 outreach programmes where IDeA’s faculty went to trainees’ organizations and field areas to conducting practice based programmes. It has so far trained 520 voluntary workers, of which 270 are women. IDeA has a permanent Training Center that includes boarding facilities for trainees and faculty quarters at Rowmari village of Chirang district under Bongaigaon Territorial Autonomous District. http://www.theant.org/ |