The livelihood and community development projects implemented have a holistic approach encompassing many components of health, education, skills training, capacity building and awareness. The projects work in sync with government development programmes and facilitate linkages to public services and schemes for the project beneficiaries. Each community development project is attuned to local needs, through a preliminary need evaluation, wherein the local needs are acknowledged and the final design and outcomes of the project are decided. Typically, a project is implemented in the same area for a period of 3-5 years in order to achieve impact and sustainable development. Each project aims to ultimately enable the beneficiaries to become change makers in their communities.
A person’s livelihood refers to their “means of securing the basic necessities -food, water, shelter and clothing- of life”. Livelihood is defined as a set of activities performed to live for a given life span, involving securing water, food, fodder, medicine, shelter, clothing and the capacity to acquire above necessities working either individually or as a group by using endowments (both human and material) for meeting the requirements of the self and his/her household on a sustainable basis with dignity. The activities are usually carried out repeatedly For instance, a fisherman’s livelihood depends on the availability and accessibility of fish.
In 1992 Robert Chambers and Gordon Conway proposed the following composite definition of a sustainable rural livelihood, which is applied most commonly at the household level: “A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (stores, resources, claims and access) and activities required for a means of living: a livelihood is sustainable which can cope with and recover from stress and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation; and which contributes net benefits to other livelihoods at the local and global levels and in the short and long term.”