During 2005 – 2006, a small group of South Australians (South Australian Supporting Children and Women in Assam) and two local organisations in Assam (SPADE and Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development) worked together in developing and implementing an early childhood development project at the grass roots level located in a village called Dhemai, situated in the North-eastern state of Assam, India.
In doing this through the generous support of South Australian people and a number of organisations we were able to:
• raise $1200 through donations and fundraising initiatives to cover establishment and incidental costs
• gather 700 toys and learning resources through donations from toy libraries in South Australia such as Unley Toy Library, Burnside Primary School and individuals and welfare organisations like Lions Club of Edwardstown.
• secure a travel grant from STA Travel Trust to cover travel expenses for one member to and from the project site.
• negotiate with Malaysian airlines and DHL Courier services to carry the freight free of cost from Adelaide to New Delhi
The Toy library in Dhemai was opened on the 15th July 2006. It will be maintained by volunteer workers who will be supported with a small stipend. We will be fundraising soon to support this. Since the toy library is the first of its kind in the North-eastern part of India, it is being looked upon as a model (this was demonstrated in the local media) and is attracting widespread interest from government and non government organisations providing services to children. The concept may therefore be picked up by those organisations at some time in future.
