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Rights based actions result in sustainable development in the rural communities.  It is a process of sustainable empowerment of the poor. This is vividly seen in the communities animated by SMSSS, said Fr. Francis. He was speaking during the concluding program of two days exposure visit of Development Initiatives by Social Animation (DISA) to SMSSS. Fr. Francis the program director of DISA.

DISA is the Social Service Society, organized under the leadership of CST Fathers (Little Flower Congregation) of Basthi, Gorakhpur, Utthar Pradesh. Twenty one members of the staff of DISA visited SMSSS and the communities on a study tour for interactions and learning on 13 and 14 January 2014. There were two fathers (Fr. Francis and Fr. Benny) one Sister (Sr. Lily SRA), three lay ladies and 15 lay men in the team.

The team had Interactions with DSSS Staff and learning about SMSSS on 13 January.   On 14, they had field visit in three groups to learn about the functioning and activities of CBOs/Groups with focus on Federation of Groups, Income Generating Activities, Sustainable Agricultural practices and Actions for Good Governance.

The efforts and achievements of SMSSS are very much appreciated by the team. SMSSS has a number of successful models which prove that sustainable development is possible, the development practitioners and change can learn a lot from visiting these models, they opined. They were taken up ‘Sthree Bhandhu Federations and Sahakari’ model of SMSSS It is a unique model designed by SMSSS converging Self Help Group, Federation and Cooperative concepts in the process of empowering the women.