South Australians Supporting Children and Women in Assam (SASCWA)
To access other pages click on the links in the banner above

About SASCWA

SASCWA is a small grass roots charitable organisation inaugurated in 2005 by a group of individuals from South Australia working in public health. Inspired by the People's Health Movement , our first project was to set up a toy library in the village of Dhemai situated about 40 km southeast of Guwahati, the capital of Assam. Our choice of Assam was based on two members of the group, our project officers, Udoy and Rupali Saikia, having come from Assam. We knew that a project in Assam would have the support of the Saikia family who continue to live in Assam and that the regular visits by Udoy and Rupali to the area would allow us to monitor and evaluate the project.We thought that it was very important to ensure that our efforts were beneficial, sustained and appropriate for the local villages with whom we would be working. Our efforts in Dhemai brought us to the attention of Uttam Teron, a dedicated individual who with his family has built the 'Parijat Academy' from four students to the several hundred taught there today. We were able to provide support for Parijat in particular through the provision of text books, locally sourced desks and benches and bedding for the boarders from remote villages. In order to get schooling children from remote villages without schools were required to board at the school. Now with the help of Uttam Teron we have helped set up and support schools in several remote villages.  Literacy rates in these villages are very low, for example,  literacy in Maghuapara is 5% of the adult population. Changing climate conditions have affected the villages such as Maghuapara enormously so that it is no longer possible for local people to practice their traditional slash and burn form of agriculture. SASCWA hopes to assist the villages by supporting a range of projects: support for schools including teacher's salaries, provision of education materials, agricultural projects such as vegetable gardens and mushroom growing and  support for public health initiatives. We  also have a SASCWA Assam chapter with active members - Santana Sarma, Meera Saikia and Uttam Teron and have partnered with the University of South Australia, Healthy Kids and Human Rights & Security Clusters,   to support teaching training and evaluation of the projects.

You can also see our original blog at http://sascwa.blogspot.com/

---

Where is Assam?

Assam is in the north-east of India. It is one of the seven states which make up the seven sisters which are connected to the larger landmass by a thin strip of land. Assam has hundreds of tribal communities. Most of these live in very poor conditions with no clean protected water supply , no electricity and no local health facilities. The children have little access to health care and in those communities which have them, the schools are poorly equipped. Many villages have no schools at all and literacy rates are low. Infant and child mortality is high. Nearly 7 of every 100 children die in infancy. The people who live in these villages live by growing crops and working in the fields.

---

The SASCWA team

Rupali with children from an orphanage in Guwahati

Adelaide Team:  Ms Raelene Welsh - Treasurer, Project officers - Dr Udoy Saikia, Ms Rupali Saikia, Dr Jackie Street - Public Officer, Ms Helen Richards, Mr Rama Ramanathan, Ms Evangeline Metz, Mr James Metz, Mr Deepak Vasisht

Assam Team: Santana Sarma, Meera Saikia and Uttam Teron

If you would like to be part of the team and help us support community development in Assam, please contact us at sascwa.assam@gmail.com

---