- by Rashmi Saikia, Houston, Texas, www.bims.tv

Growing up in Guwahati, Assam, I had never known, that at some point of time, I would be moving to live in Houston, Texas. I moved to the US in 1993. Since then, a chain of events have taken place, such as graduation, finding a job, getting interested in running, and eventually, getting interested in independent projects, such as Aarohan, the Bhabendra Nath Saikia Institute of Media Studies, an occasional contribution to the News Channel DY365 in Assam, among others.

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Initially I did not feel comfortable about the communication level that sSTEP was providing, as well as their capacity to expand. Thus, we only began project implementation and usage of funds on February 22, 2010, when I felt confident they were ready. The project is now in its initial stages. There are 2 full time staff and 2 others working 10 hours per week. $2800 was given to sSTEP to cover the first 3 months and overhead (e.g. computer and desks) and they must collect all receipts and be ready to present them at any time. sSTEP has connected with a large population of part time domestic workers, and we are hoping to connect to live in domestic workers soon. The program is mostly in initial policy design stages. They are hosting focus groups with employers to test out contracts and demands, and focus groups with domestic workers to decide the kinds of training that should be implemented first. They have begun connecting domestic workers to training through JASS and studying the JASS model to see how it can be improved. They are also designing curriculum for other training, and will begin a pilot program for placement in the next 2 months. I will be visiting them in the next month to monitor the project more closely and make sure our goals are on track according to the timeline.