The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) calls him an ‘Innovator’ as Sethrichem Sangtam went ahead in life innovating ideas and living them through ‘Better Life Foundation’ which he founded in July 2009.
It was his dream to uplift the lives of the rural poor even as he started the Foundation in order to foster a better living standard among the backward communities of Nagaland, aimed at enhancing food security, employment and environment sustainability through training and adoption of viable economic activities.
With its core issue focused on marginal rural farmers, it is highly institutionalised in the villages of Eastern Nagaland and his innovative Goat Farm pilot project in Tuensang district can be seen as an example set for all other subsequent initiatives and interventions.
He deeply feels that ‘Community Participation’ is a dire necessity while building up on a society and propagates on their participation even as he talks about his ‘Goat Farm’ and further lights up on the mention of the Farmers’ Club that he started in 7 villages of Eastern Nagaland.
For him, livelihood sustainability in respect of Environment, Economy and Education are so important that he goes on to say when one has the 3 Es in place they do not have to worry about employment.
Over the past year, he has generated employment opportunities for a score of rural youth where some of them have even been trained at institutions like RRTC Shillong and College of Veterinary Science, Khanapara, Guwahati. This group of young men, known as ‘Bare Foot Veterinarians’, are then skilled with the knowledge of farming and other basic knowledge required to man an animal farm.
Interestingly, ranging from the kind of job required in the foundation, he employs a host of people from different s such as school dropouts, etc, giving them a better lease to life. It is his desire to try and make everyone of them a leader in their own capacities.
It is worth mentioning that that the Better Life Foundation represented India at the Luxor International Forum “Enforcing the UN Protocol” in Egypt last December.
But the man behind the Better Life Foundation interestingly studied Law at Bangalore and in the process, he was nominated as a Global Youth Advisory Panel Member with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), holding a position of repute among only 20 panel members who are nominated from all over the world.
He worked at the Headquarter in New York for a year. He recalls those days as having so much curiosity to learn, while also describing it as some sort of culture shock. “Initially, it was very difficult to understand what to do or where to go because things are so organized” he says.
Expressing it was difficult to catch up for a few months, he however got used to it and while talking about how hard people work there, he goes on to state, “People in New York don’t sleep”. ‘Sleeping is a luxury’, he adds.
That brings to the topic of ‘work culture’ which he finds it difficult to classify in Nagaland. He bluntly states, “There is NO work culture at all in Nagaland” while putting across that “we live such a laid back life, and it’s completely different!”
But Nagaland, to him, is the Best social capital and he is really encouraged to see young people coming up and enterprising themselves in the past few years. “I find people coming back, starting their new ventures. There are lots of showrooms, trendy businesses owned by the youth. It feels good to see them,” he says.
An ardent promoter of youth, he is also the founder of the Youth Employment Summit Campaign in Nagaland in 2004. He also helped launched the Summit in Manipur and Mizoram. Recalling these ventures, he expresses his thought about the Platform as a vibrant place to bring avenues for young people.
He was also coordinating for the Nagaland State in this respect for two years. In 2006, he led the Nagaland team to Nairobi Kenya.
Coming back to his roots after all his experiences with the world, it is his wish to see that he has impacted the lives of few youths and families, and contributed life security to them. He says that five years from now “Better Life Foundation would like to see that every marginalised family in our reference area is capable of generating sufficient resources to cover children education, health-care, secure livelihood and comfortable shelter.”
It was his dream to uplift the lives of the rural poor even as he started the Foundation in order to foster a better living standard among the backward communities of Nagaland, aimed at enhancing food security, employment and environment sustainability through training and adoption of viable economic activities.
With its core issue focused on marginal rural farmers, it is highly institutionalised in the villages of Eastern Nagaland and his innovative Goat Farm pilot project in Tuensang district can be seen as an example set for all other subsequent initiatives and interventions.
He deeply feels that ‘Community Participation’ is a dire necessity while building up on a society and propagates on their participation even as he talks about his ‘Goat Farm’ and further lights up on the mention of the Farmers’ Club that he started in 7 villages of Eastern Nagaland.
For him, livelihood sustainability in respect of Environment, Economy and Education are so important that he goes on to say when one has the 3 Es in place they do not have to worry about employment.
Over the past year, he has generated employment opportunities for a score of rural youth where some of them have even been trained at institutions like RRTC Shillong and College of Veterinary Science, Khanapara, Guwahati. This group of young men, known as ‘Bare Foot Veterinarians’, are then skilled with the knowledge of farming and other basic knowledge required to man an animal farm.
Interestingly, ranging from the kind of job required in the foundation, he employs a host of people from different s such as school dropouts, etc, giving them a better lease to life. It is his desire to try and make everyone of them a leader in their own capacities.
It is worth mentioning that that the Better Life Foundation represented India at the Luxor International Forum “Enforcing the UN Protocol” in Egypt last December.
But the man behind the Better Life Foundation interestingly studied Law at Bangalore and in the process, he was nominated as a Global Youth Advisory Panel Member with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), holding a position of repute among only 20 panel members who are nominated from all over the world.
He worked at the Headquarter in New York for a year. He recalls those days as having so much curiosity to learn, while also describing it as some sort of culture shock. “Initially, it was very difficult to understand what to do or where to go because things are so organized” he says.
Expressing it was difficult to catch up for a few months, he however got used to it and while talking about how hard people work there, he goes on to state, “People in New York don’t sleep”. ‘Sleeping is a luxury’, he adds.
That brings to the topic of ‘work culture’ which he finds it difficult to classify in Nagaland. He bluntly states, “There is NO work culture at all in Nagaland” while putting across that “we live such a laid back life, and it’s completely different!”
But Nagaland, to him, is the Best social capital and he is really encouraged to see young people coming up and enterprising themselves in the past few years. “I find people coming back, starting their new ventures. There are lots of showrooms, trendy businesses owned by the youth. It feels good to see them,” he says.
An ardent promoter of youth, he is also the founder of the Youth Employment Summit Campaign in Nagaland in 2004. He also helped launched the Summit in Manipur and Mizoram. Recalling these ventures, he expresses his thought about the Platform as a vibrant place to bring avenues for young people.
He was also coordinating for the Nagaland State in this respect for two years. In 2006, he led the Nagaland team to Nairobi Kenya.
Coming back to his roots after all his experiences with the world, it is his wish to see that he has impacted the lives of few youths and families, and contributed life security to them. He says that five years from now “Better Life Foundation would like to see that every marginalised family in our reference area is capable of generating sufficient resources to cover children education, health-care, secure livelihood and comfortable shelter.”
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