PROJECTS

Support a Grandma

Support-A-Grandma : 

AFNA has kicked off a new initiative named "Support A Grandma" in partnership with Bhabada Devi Philanthropic Trust, Guwahati. This trust runs a facility in Guwahati that can provide home up to twenty boarders. This facility aptly named 'Seneh' (meaning selfless love) currently hosts 18 women, all aged 55years and older, who were abandoned by their near and dear ones.

The need:

The house and the complex where Seneh is running in Guwahati has been donated by Group Capt AC Barua and his family. Mr Baruah's family also bears a bulk of the operating cost of Seneh with additional donations. Seneh receives a good amount of material support from local citizens of Guwahati in form of food and clothing. As a whole Seneh is running well for its day to day operations.

Most of the boarders of Seneh are aged 60 years and above with history of illness. This has created a big deficit in Seneh's budget as there is a constant outflow of medical expense while taking care of the boarders. It is estimated that Seneh runs on an average of $500 in medical expense per month where it needs help from AFNA or other external sources.

The Program:

AFNA has a fund raising target of  $6000 a year to sponsor Support-A-Grandma program to compensate the medical expenses of the boarders ($300 per boarder). We welcome donation of any amount that can contribute towards this noble program. Our patrons can adopt one Grandma (boarder) of Seneh by contributing $300 a year or $50 a month.

Mothers' day kick off :

AFNA has always shown the solidarity and engaged in various philanthropic practices. Showing our gratitude to motherhood, the symbol of selfless and unconditional affection and on the eve of Mother’s Day 14 May 2017, AFNA has initiated a new commitment Support-A-Grandma with Seneh to compensate medical and healthcare expenses for destitute and ailing mother and grandmother.

Seneh in Brief :

Bhabada Devi Philanthropic Trust is working for the benefit of the under privileged and deprived section of the society especially women of North East India. The worst sufferers are the old and the infirm as in many cases their children are dumping them to fend for themselves out of economic compulsions. Women in the age group of fifty and above are the ones who suffer the most, because they are mentally and physically vulnerable. To alleviate their suffering and bring dignity and succor to some of these women, the Trust has opened a destitute home at Guwahati named Seneh.

Seneh Mission:

Seneh, meaning ‘Selfless Love’, the home 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.

Observation of AFNA volunteer's recent visit to Seneh:

"The facility is nested in the foothills of Narakasur and is very neatly kept. Group Capt. AC Barua was very gracious in arranging a meeting at the Seneh facility at short notice, although he was out of town. I had a very informative meeting with Mr. Paresh Dev-Choudhury, Dr. N. Rabha, Mrs. Purabi Kakati, Mrs. Sangita Dutta and Ms. Bijoya who familiarized and gave me a tour of the facility. The care that has been taken to keep the facility in good shape was very evident. The facility has a capacity of 20 and currently 18 ladies are resident. One of them is in a hospital undergoing medical care. The ladies cook their own food and engage is various hobbies of their choice e.g. knitting, stitching, sewing, painting, poetry writing and other creative activities. I had the pleasure of being a part of a poetry recitation from one of the talented ladies. The hobby center had the collection of their creations. As I am told, the facility receives donations in kind from various sources, but the medical expenses of the elderly ladies are a major strain in their budget. Even under those constraints, it appeared to me that the Seneh management has done an excellent job in creating a very homely atmosphere which is undoubtedly very beneficial to the distressed ladies. It was a humbling experience to be in the midst of such a facility and my hats off to the Trust management for such yeoman service." -- Sarfaraz Taher (Volunteer, visited 2017, April)

"The place is beautiful and Serene.  It is a well-kept place.  Looks like everyone was working in harmony. Couple of residents were drying clothes outside, Jharna was cooking for everyone in the kitchen with her two helpers, Geeta was weaving in the Tatsal, and Sarala was singing with her harmonium. Mr Atul Barua, Dr N C Rava and Mr. Paresh Devchoudhury were waiting for me in the office. "  -- Ranju Sarma (Volunteer, visited 2016, Sep)

 

 

A skilled resident is weaving Taatsal
 

  

Donate Online for Support-A-Grandma 

 This will take you to the PayPal website on a page for AFNA to complete your donation. Please fill in the web-form and submit your payment. Please follow the instruction below to fill the two fields in the PayPal web-form:

  1. In the Amount field, please consider adding 2.2% to the total. This helps AFNA pay the Paypal processing fee. Thank you!
  2. In the Donation Description field, please put the name of the project you want to support with your donation. If you want AFNA to select a project, please write "General Fund" instead. 

Employer Matching

Many companies have matching gifts programs to match charitable donations by their employees to non-profit organizations. You can contact your company's benefits department to find out if your company has such a program. If it does, please submit a request to your employer to match your donation to AFNA. Such employer matching funds significantly expand the value of your valuable donation to AFNA. Thank you!

 

 

Projects And Initiatives - An Overview

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.

AKADAMICS 2024-2025 - Announcements

AKADAMIC SCHOLARSHIP AWARDEES 2024-2025

The following applicants are awardees for the 2024-2025 AKADAMIC Scholarship. The awardees will be contacted individually regarding scholarship disbursement.

 

*Provisionally Selected - Pending complete document submission and verification

AKADAMICS - About The Scholarship

AKADAMICS SCHOLARSHIP

What is the purpose of the AFNA sponsored Kaushik Das Memorial College Scholarship (AKADAMICS)?

This is an initiative under the auspices of Assam Foundation of North America to award educational scholarships and mentoring to students who are financially deprived but have demonstrated promising academics. The scholarships are awarded to students pursuing postsecondary education. The objective is to encourage higher education among financially needy students and eventually making them capable of providing for their family.

Who is eligible?
  1. Students seeking to or already enrolled in a bachelor’s degree course in any discipline are eligible; no scholarship is available at this stage for pursuing diploma/certificate level courses.
  2. The applicant should have passed his/her Higher Secondary/Pre-University/CBSE/ISC or equivalent board qualifying examination.
  3. Students of families whose per-head family income (i.e. total family income/total family members) is at or below Rs. 50,000 per year are eligible for the scholarship. Family income refers to the income after deductions for taxes or other purposes. Only direct family members will count towards the total family members.
  4. A potential awardee should be a permanent resident of the state of Assam verified through appropriate documentation.
How to Apply?
  1. For completing applications online click here - Application Form.
  2. For completing paper applications, please print the online form and mail it to the address provided at the bottom of this page.
What is the selection criteria?
  1. There is no minimum academic score, grade or percentage necessary to be eligible for the scholarships. AFNA SSB will use all information provided in the application form including the essay questions in Section 10 to make the scholarship .
  2. Potential awardees will be required to complete an application form. Applications are accepted between January 1st and April 30th of every year.
  3. Completed applications are reviewed by the AFNA Scholarship Selection Board (SSB) and the decision of the Board is final.
Will the scholarship be for a specified time period or for the entire duration of the course?

A scholarship once awarded will be until the completion of the academic year for which it was awarded. Scholarship shall be renewed for the next academic year if the awardee meets the criteria listed below:

  1. The awardee will need to reapply for renewal of the scholarship for the new academic year.
  2. The awardee will need to obtain a clear promotion to the next academic year per the institution’s criteria.
  3. Good conduct and regularity in attendance certified by the Head of the College/Institution would be required. In case of low attendance, applications may be considered based on explanation by the student.
  4. The applicant continues the course as a regular student until the completion of the course. If the applicant discontinues the course, he/she should inform AKADAMICS immediately and the scholarship will be discontinued.
  5. AFNA Scholarship Selection Board (SSB) for AKADAMICS will have the final authority on scholarship renewals.
How will the scholarship be paid?
  1. The scholarship is paid in 4 equal installments in a year.
  2. The scholarship matches the schedule of an academic year in Assam (starts in July of an academic year and ends in and July of the following year).
  3. The scholarship is deposited to the bank account of the awardees. Awardees must have a bank account in a recognized bank.
Will an awardee be allowed to avail scholarship from other sources?

If the scholarship amount does not cover the entire expenses of the course pursued, the awardee will be allowed to avail scholarship from other sources.

What are the key dates and deadlines?
  1. Applications Open for 2025-2026 – Jan 1st, 2025
  2. Last Date for Application Submission (Online or Paper) for 2025-2026 session – May 31st, 2025
  3. Last Date for Documentation Submission (from the requested applicants) – July 31st, 2025
  4. Scholarship Announcement - Aug 31st, 2025
What evidence will need to be provided to support an applicant’s financial status?
  1. Where parents' of applicants are employees, a salary/pay slip from the employer is mandatory. The salary/pay slip should clearly show the family member's gross monthly salary with full details of his/her basic salary and all allowances and deductions. The employer and the facilitator should certify the pay slip. Submission of an Income certificate from a local or other government authority in lieu of a salary/pay slip is not acceptable.
  2. Where parent(s)/guardian(s) are retirees/pensioners, a pension statement from the pension authority and/or from an authorized bank showing the gross monthly pension of the family member, inclusive of any supplementary allowances and before any deductions is required. Pensioners should also provide documents to show the official status or designation, gross salary drawn at the time of retirement and the name of the employing organization. If the parent/guardian has recently retired under a voluntary retirement scheme, reasons for retirement, and amount of lump sum benefits received on retirement should be disclosed.
  3. Where parent(s)/guardian(s) are in business or self-employed, income certificate issued by any government authority or the income tax return should be submitted in support of the gross family income specified in the application. Specific details of the nature and size of the business or self-employment should also be provided.
  4. Where parent(s)/guardian(s) are agriculturists or have farming or cultivation as their source of income, an income certificate from a recognized or competent authority should be submitted. Details of the nature and size of the land holding, crops grown, etc. wet or dry land irrigation should also be provided.
Who can help with completing the application form?

Instructions are provided with the application form. For additional help with completing the form, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Where should the application form be sent to?

The application form can be emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or mailed to:

AFNA - AKADAMICS
4391 McMenemy Street,
Vadnais Heights, MN 55127, USA

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