the ant’s current activities
Started by experienced development professionals and registered as a Charitable Trust, the ant works at two levels :
- Directly, it has a presence in around 900 villages in Chirang District, working to uplift the poorest and marginalised, irrespective of community, class or religious affiliations. Some of the current development interventions of the ant include working in 200 government schools to better learning outcomes of children through enrichment of their learning experience, working to end domestic violence in over 100 villages through changing the patriarchal culture of violence against women, directly and also through partner NGOs across 6 districts of Assam, treating over 1600 mentally ill and epileptic patients every month through a non-funded financially sustainable model of treatment and building up adolescent girls leadership through the Girl Icon Leadership programme.
2. Indirectly, it works in partnership with other NGOs across Northeast India – With long years of experience of working in the community, the ant set up an initiative called IDeA (the Institute of Development Action) in 2007 to share its learnings with the larger voluntary sector in the Northeast region. Wherever required, IDeA is mandated to train and build up the capacity of NGOs and its personnel so that the sector as a whole becomes more vibrant in bringing about social transformation in the region. The faculty of IDeA has run various short- and long-term courses and trained over 1000 NGO personnel from different parts of the Northeast in NGO Management on topics such as Governance and legal compliance, Financial management of NGOs, Leadership, Organizational policies and good practices with the team also being called in to facilitate Strategic planning & OD exercises for various NGOs. IDeA has also organized capacity building trainings on domains of gender equity, leadership and consensus building, community development, skills in facilitation & training, child rights and working with children, managing SHGs, etc. The faculty members are also visiting faculty and Resource Person at Government Institutions like National Institute Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD), National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), State Institute of Panchayat and Rural Development (SIPRD), Council for Advancement of Rural Action and Public Cooperation (CAPART) etc. IDeA faculty has internal capabilities but it has also worked with and also draws upon the expertise of other trainers and resource persons wherever required. It works closely with community-based organizations and has been instrumental in capacity building of more than 150 small NGOs through its training institute IDeA which now over 30 active partners largely from Assam and few from Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur. Apart from trainings, IDeA also carries out research and studies, consultancies for evaluation of projects & programmes, strategic planning of organization and also help building up systems of finance & governance in organizations.