Current Initiatives
Here are short descriptions of our current initiatives. Over 50 volunteers spread across North America work in small groups to ensure support for all our projects. Clicking on a link in the list below will take you to a page with more details of the corresponding project.
Programs
SAC - Support A Child: supports the education of school-age children in Assam with a $100/year stipend per child to remove obstacles for the family to send the child to school. Currently, we support over 100 students, and also have a Global Giving project to support 100 more students.
AKADAMICS - AFNA sponsored Kaushik Das Memorial College Scholarship: to award educational scholarships and mentoring to students who are financially deprived but have demonstrated promising academics. The scholarships are awarded to students pursuing post-secondary education. The objective is to encourage higher education in the general population and eventually making them capable of providing for their family.
Support-A-Grandma - SENEH, a rehabilitation center provides shelter, food, medical care, clothing and all necessities for sustaining a decent dignified life. The vision is that in the sunset years of their lives, they can once again learn to laugh and sing and live together as a family ... all ABSOLUTELY FREE. Support-A-Grandma is a AFNA’s commitment to compensate medical and healthcare expenses for destitute and ailing resident of Seneh.
SIPA - Summer InternshiP Assam: to provide summer internship opportunities to school-age children in schools we support. Such internships help students connect their education to workplace experience so that they have information to make better career choices after they graduate.
SLP - Solar Light - Power to people: provides a packaged solution of reliable solar lighting to people who do not have access to electricity from the grid due to remoteness or poverty.
FRA - Flood Relief in Assam: to provide financial support to selected NGO's in Assam that have a demonstrated track record of saving lives and property during Assam's annual floods.
Projects we support in Assam
ADI - Assam Development Initiatives (NEW): NGO focused on helping rural schools in Assam located in rural Kamrup district, including schools in Dhopguri, Khetri, and Basistha.
ANEC - Atma Nirbhar Ek Challenge: provides gainful employment to over 35 disabled adults in food packaging in Guwahati.
Parijat Academy - School for underprivileged children near Garbhanga (near Guwahati) which serves children of stone quarry workers and others without access to quality education.
Prajnalaya - School for underprivileged children in Titabor.
Rickshaw Bank/CRD - NGO that provides microfinance and a technologically advanced Rickshaw designed initially in IIT Guwahati to poor rickshaw pullers across India. The rickshaw puller pays off a loan from their daily earnings for 18 months and becomes an owner, to raise the family income level from then on.
Sanjeevani - Rehabilitation centre for physically and mentally disabled children in Tezpur.
SHED - Society for Health & Educational Development: Unique integrated school for orphans and disabled children in Sonapur to help both groups of students thrive by helping each other.
Swabalambi - NGO that provides training and other assistance to schools in Assam for educating physically and mentally disabled children.
Tapoban - Free residential school for disabled, poor, working, and abandoned children in Pathsala.
Shishu Sarothi (NEW) - Unique NGO based in Guwahati that provides a full range of services to people with disabilities, especially children, and also provides support to families facing multiple challenges.
SENEH : A rehabilitation center situated in Kahilipara, Guwahati for elderly destitute women, provides shelter, food, medical care, clothing and all necessities for sustaining a decent dignified life.
Annual Events
WBMM - Where Brahmaputra meets Mississippi: A fundraising initiative organized separately by a group of dedicated volunteers in Minnesota, that AFNA supports. The fund raised in this event is allocated toward income generation schemes for rural artisans in Assam. It builds the capacity and access to training and infrastructure for self-help groups of weavers.
AFNA Work-An-Hour (NEW) - An annual fundraising initiative during the Rongali Bihu season to appeal to our supporters to donate 1 hour of their income to our projects.
In addition to these initiatives, AFNA contributes to US projects by donating to organizations like the US Red Cross that provide relief to affected communities across the country and beyond, after natural disasters like tornadoes and earthquakes.
