Swayam Shikshan Prayog formally launched in 1998, drawing strength from their early learnings during the community-led reconstruction partnership after the Latur earthquake in 1993. 

The Latur crisis was a case study for post-disaster rehabilitation & an early learning in disaster reduction. Beyond that, it gave us an opportunity & impetus to mobilize rural women for large, community-centered efforts. 

These women were recognized for the extensive infrastructural reconstruction accomplished in the disaster-struck communities. In time, Swayam Shikshan Prayog mobilized these women into self-help groups. 

Leveraging the insights gained during the quake, we developed a replicable model for disaster management & reconstruction that was applicable in India as well as abroad. Gradually, they honed our expertise in recovery & started building models for building community resilience. 

To them, the inherent challenges of rural life were linked to sustenance, clean water & sanitation, as well as preventive health services for women & girls. Swayam Shikshan Prayog drew large programs aimed at development centred around women’s participation & leadership to address these issues. 

They planned innovative business models based on non-traditional products as income generators for vulnerable communities. Swayam Shikshan Prayog nurtured enterprises that offered platforms for rural women to build products that benefited the community, & assisted these businesses to grow.  

Gradually, they built a support system for our chain of women’s savings and credit groups – Sakhi entrepreneur networks – through rural business school, marketing and distribution systems, health entrepreneurs and social micro finance institution (MFI). 

Swayam Shikshan Prayog encouraged these women to assume larger leadership roles. Trained women SHGs partnered with local governments and guided their communities towards resilient development, through new livelihood opportunities that increased household assets and incomes. 

Their efforts succeeded and as a result, they now have clusters of informed women as consumers, producers, borrowers, entrepreneurs and community leaders in over 2000 villages where they operate.