We work towards Housing, Livelihoods and Child Development.
WHO WE ARE
Greetings! We, at Samunnathi Urban Sustainable Livelihood Initiatives, are an upcoming NGO, based in Delhi, dedicated to the cause of policy and development. We introduce ourselves as a young team passionate about the social cause of homelessness and poverty.
Homelessness in urban centres is a major issue that arrests the growth and development of the lowest economic strata in our society. A study conducted by the IHD-GNCTD (2010) noted a shelter-less population of 56,000 in Delhi. We propose to initiate a project to address the issue of poverty among the urban homeless. The project aims to address the issue of poverty in ways that are fourfold:
1. Housing,
2. Skilling, (Skill Development and Enabling a new workforce)
3. Child Development and Welfare, and
4. Convergence and Advocacy.
As the project looks at a comprehensive development of an individual or family, the impact created by each component strengthens each other. The duration of the project would be 5 years, during which the beneficiaries of the project would be assisted and guided towards development in social, economic, professional and educational spheres to attain a life of growth, liberty and dignity.
WHAT WE DO
Urban Sustainable Livelihood Initiatives (USLI) is a comprehensive multi layered program designed to address the core developmental issue of POVERTY. But the program looks beyond the poverty as an end but looks at a sustainable developmental stage wherein the person will be in a position for addressing various manifestation of poverty like Housing, Income, Education, Health Care, Recreational Facilities and Societal Integration. The USLI is a comprehensive programme which has multiple components and addresses all of the above mentioned aspects of human well-being. The programme also aims at creating a sustainable model of development where in an outside agency’s role in addressing the livelihood issues is as minimal as possible and follows a systematic and planned withdrawal from the stakeholder. The involvement of the external agency is highly regulated and is need and context specific. In simple terms the external agency support to the community is high only in the initial stages and withdraws once the basic needs are met.
The programme works on the basic idea of a providing the basic facilities upfront for the vulnerable and marginalised sections of the society and systematically working on capacitating the stakeholders to improve their social and economic status. The sustainability angle of the program is a key feature and a core element on which the entire programme works. The selected beneficiaries of the program will be provided direct support only in the initial stage and major part of the work is focused on developing the capability of the stakeholder to overcome the state of poverty and marginalisation.