Sahayi – Centre for Collective Learning and Action is established and registered under the Charitable Society’s Registration Act in 1990. It functions as a regional voluntary development support organisation. It’s registered and head office is at Trivandrum, Kerala, India.

The General Body of the Organisation consists of nine members representing voluntary sector, academia and consultants. The management of the organisation is vested with a five member Executive Council. The day to day affairs are carried on by the Director with the support of a professional team and support staff under the supervision and monitoring of the Executive Council. In addition to the Head Office, Sahayi has a Tsunami Project Office in Kollam District and a north zone office in Kasargod.

ORGANISATIONAL GOALS

• To offer adult Education support to various shakeholder group to help them empower and involve in poverty reduction programmes.
• To promote and strengthen voluntary action and voluntary organisations as acatalyst to development and governance
• To promote and strengthen panchayat Raj and Nagarapalika Institutions as true democratic local self Governments.
• To promote and help popularise community based participatory approaches in disaster management
• To undertake and implement activities such as participatory research , interfaces, regional/national conferences to influence policy decisions.
• To help Nurture/promote federations/networks among CBOs/NGOs.
• To help strengthen the capacity of adult educators and other development actors to use extensively participatory approaches in learning/training activities and development interventions.
• To offer capacity building support for human resource development
• To ensure accessibility of adult education learning/training materials to the adult educator in local language through development and publicaation of such materials

Past and Present Activities

Promotion and strengthening of Local Self-Governance.

• Right based interventions like promotion of Right to Information.
• Strengthening of people’s Assembly - The Grama/ward sabha.
• Promotion of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for enhancing employment to rural people.
• Capacity building support for elected representatives and other development activists.
• Social and political empowerment through the election awarness campaign, learning materials support and information sharing etc.
• Policy advocacy /lobbying through conducting research/ case studies..

The establishment of the organisation was in response to address the need of the voluntary sector to enhance their capacity to function as an effective catalyst to development and social change. So the initial focus was on providing capacity building support for enhancing the information base, knowledge and skill of the voluntary workers to manage their organisations effectively and undertake and implement sustainable development programme with special focus on human resource development. As a part of it, a series of participatory learning /training materials were also prepared and published for its intensive and extensive use. After the enactment of the new Panchayat Raj/ Nagarapalika Act through 73^rd and 74^th Constitutional amendment in India in 1992 and the State law in 1994, SAHAYI initiated a variety of interventions to make the Local Self Governance Institutions (LSGIs) as a real democratic local self government. The interventions include: massive awareness generation programmes for the promotion and strengthening of Grama Sabha, perspective and capacity building trainings for the personnel in CSOs, elected representatives of LSGIs, interfaces with elected representatives and Officials, participatory research and policy advocacy on issues related to the functioning of LSGIs and development interventions, Networking, linking media and academia to promote local democracy, production and publication of learning/training materials on LSGIs, dissemination of information etc with special focus on women and the weaker sections of the society

Adult Education Interventions for empowerment and poverty Reduction:

• Capacity development orientation/training for adult educators like elected representative CBO/CSO leaders, citizen leaders etc.
• Conducting reserach studies/case studies
• Organising interfaces, seminars etc for policy advocacy
• Vocational and Management training and support for promoting income generation programmes.
• Development and publication of learning/training materials.
• Organisational development intervention.

Organising a series of adult education intervention and training programme for empowering women and women groups and building their capacity to manage their organisation and identify feasible and viable micro industrial projects and its implementation for earning a livelihood, strengthening of the capacities of the Civil Society Organisation, promotion and nurturing and strengthening of Women Development Organisations, SHGs and Kudumbasree Neighbourhood Groups, promotion and strengthening of social cohesion and peace, documentation and dissemination of information and preparing of education materials are the major component, activities of the project.

Community based Tsunami disaster relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction:

• Community based approaches like communiity mess, eco- friendly temporary shelters. community managed dress making, recreation centre and nutrition programmes during relief.
• People centered psycho social rehabilitation like development of CLWs/CBO, counseling support , life skill education, consultancy and referal service, employment generating skill training & promotion of micro enterprises etc..
• Child and youth development intervention like Recreation centres, Children’s Assemblies and Parliament
• Participatory disaster prepardeness like youth volunteer team building ,community education etc.

When Tsunami hit the coastal areas of Kerala on the 26^th of December 2004 SAHAYI started a structured, integrated and holistic intervention to help the worst tsunami affected community in the State (Alappad Gram Panchayat in Kollam District of Kerala). The major activities include: removal of debris and cleaning of tsunami affected areas, providing clean drinking water and food, conducted community mess, providing nutrition food for pregnant and lactating mothers, dress for children, construction of temporary eco-friendly thatched shelters and toilets, retrofitting, repairing and maintenance of damaged houses, regeneration of educational institutions, setting up of child recreation and youth information centres, psychosocial care support for tsunami affected people and a variety of similar related activities.

There are three major project interventions currently going on. The first one is the activities related to strengthening of LSGIs such as consultation support for strengthening Grama sabha, preparation of local plans by using participatory approach, conducting action research on LSGIs, policy advocacy, mobilizing citizens for accessing 100 days wage employment offered by government through Panchayats by enacting the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(NREGA), promoting and popularizing extensive use of the provisions of Right to Information Act through massive orientation –cum-action campaigns.

The next one is a set of perspective building orientations and capacity building training for improving the managerial capacity and development of leadership and professional capacities of Self Help Groups , Community Based Originations, Civil Society Organizations etc, and providing technical and financial support for selected poor families for undertaking income generation programmes with the objective of using the learnings for addressing livelihood issues and for reduction of poverty.

The third project is psycho-social rehabilitation and Child and Youth Development programme for the tsunami affected community in Alappad Panchayat in the State of Kerala. The major activities include: counseling support for various groups, life skill education for children and youth, development of volunteers for disaster preparedness, operating seven child recreation – cum - youth information centres, organizing a series of co-curricular activities for children and youth, organizing children’s assemblies and parliament, conducting a series of capacity building training for children, exposure visit, capacity building training programme for psycho social workers and promotion, nurturing and development of community based organisations. .
Sahayi also offers variety of consultancy support for the CBOs,CSOs and LSGIs in the State and in the other South Indian States.

Professional Consultancy support:

• Development of citizen leaders
• Orientation/training
• Studies/evaluation
• Organization management
  
  

ACHIEVEMENTS (Last decade):

• Several Government and non GovernmentalAgencies adopted participatory approaches in training/orientation and development interventions in the state by availaing Sahayi’s educational support since 1991.
• Several agencies adopted adult education as a strategy to empower citizens and address poverty issues.
• Developed personnel/managemen training capacity of around 10000 adult educators in the state.
• Around 1 lakh leaders of SHGs/NHGs/CBOs in the state were able to increase their awareness/knowledge on various development support for poverty reduction and managing their groups effectively.
• Around 200 women undertook income generation activities by availing educational support/small financial support from SAHAYI.
• Around 250 CBOs/VOs/NGOs could strengthen their organisational capacity
• Could develop around 200 participatory Trainers in the state.
• PreElectionvoters AwarenessCampaign(PEVAC): thousands enrolled in voters list, hundreds of women contested in Election, ensured free and fair election to certain extent
• More than 1 million citizens oriented and in hundreds of GS/WS people participattion increased qualitatively and quantitatively through gramasabha mobilisation
• Improved the capacities of thousands of elected representatives, thereby enhanced the effectiveness of development interventions and governance.
• Various networks of NGOs, CBOs and CSOs incorporated LSGI intervention as one of their major agenda.
• Panchayats as well as a government department have recognised the role and effective ness of voluntary sector in strengthening the LSGIs.
• Improved the socio economic conditions of more than 1500 tsunami affected families through participatory community based intervention:
• More than thousands of severely affected families directly benefitted through Eco friendly temporary shelters/retrofittings /sanitation etc.
• More than 5000 affected people including women,aged, children and familiy members were able to reduce/overcome their psychosocial stress and trauma.
• Hundreds of community members were made aware of various disaster, its symptoms and preparations to be made.
• A group of children and youth were developed as community based Disaster Risk Reduction volunteers.
• A series of publications of Sahayi’s experiences on disaster management were made available to all concerned.
  
  

LEARNINGS:

• Adult education support is a pre-requisite for any socio, political and economic change.
• The enhanced capacity of the citizen will lead to positive change in their attitude, motivation and action.
• Creation of a conducive environment is a basic need for application of any learning and its sustainability.
• Effective use of participatory approaches and action will lead to active participation of all stakeholder groups in planning, implementation and evaluation of any educational/developmental interventions.
• The success and sustainability of any poverty reduction programme will depend on theperspective and capacity of the participants /partners to make use of available facilities and resources.
• Empowerment at social, economical and political level is the pre-condition for the overall upliftment of the marginalised /weaker section of the community.
• Political empowerment at local level will lead to active participation of the community in governance and development thereby promote good governance.
• Community based participatory disaster management is the better solution to prepare the community to face future disasters, minimise its effects and address its consequences.

CHALLENGES:

• Lack of space for participation/ partnership with Government and private sector
• Lack of space for participation/ partnership with Government and private sector
• Negative attitude of the Government,political parties and other powerful forces towards NGO interventions in governance and development
• Least priority for adult education to empower and poverty reduction
• Resistance from bureaucracy and party politics
• Non availability of adequate training/learning materials in adult education
• Lack of facilities and inadequate professional capacity to provide IT related support

Future Programmes

Promotion of the participatory mode of development, mobilizing Grama sabha and strengthening their capacity for Social Audit and campaign on Right to Information to make Panchayat raj institutions more transparent and accountable, mobilizing, motivating and strengthening the capacity of the Civil Society to address their poverty issues by accessing schemes like NREGS available in Local Governments, empowerment of women and marginalized sections of the society including tsunami affected communities, promotion of participatory approaches in disaster management and formation and strengthening of a team for disaster management, conducting action oriented research, policy advocacy, promotion of micro-enterprises to address livelihood issues, promoting/nurturing/ strengthening grass root groups / CBOs/CSOs, promoting networks and linkages among voluntary organizations, massive campaign on human rights issues, involvement in environmental issues , food security etc.

• Offer online adult education support to various stakeholder groups
• Develop the organisation (SAHAYI) as a regional nodal centre for accessing professional learning/training/adult education support for promoting participatory approaches in education and development.
• The organisation will act as a catalyst to social’ economic and political empowerment, thereby, ensure active citizen’s participation in Governance and development interventions to address issues like poverty,unemployment, food secutiruy etc.
• The organisation will develop as a resource centre for accessing all relevant information and learning/training materials relelvant to adult education and development.
• The organisation will scale up its support services by offering it to various national/international institutions/agencies.
• The organisation will promote innovations in micro /small enterprises.