SS00000200

AIACA, a nationwide network of handicraft and handloom clusters, directly addresses the need to empower traditional artisan clusters across India through professionalization of their craft based skills for sustainable enterprise development. AIACA specializes in sustainable craft based livelihood initiatives through skill development, design innovation and product diversification, entrepreneurship development, direct market access, access to social entitlements and schemes and policy advocacy. AIACA has a unique national certification proramme, Craftmark (www.craftmark.org), that certifies and improves the economic competitiveness of genuine handmade craft processes and products of India and brings under its fold, artisans, SHGs, cooperatives, associations, social enterprises, and individual practitioners to gain from its business development and promotional services thus creating dignity and pride in the practice of traditional crafts in the long run. AIACA has over 75 Craftmark members (outreach of over 20,000 artisans across 22 states of India) and has documented over 80 traditional craft processes practiced in the country.

SS00000207

Jana Karaliya is a mobile cultural organisation that uses a collapsible theatre and travels through districts with its theatre group. It provides the area with a cultural hub during its stay, using drama and theatre, with other art forms for social harmony.  It implements human development activities using drama and theatre at the grass root level as well as the higher level of the society. Its mission is to develop a culturally and spiritually awakened society enabling it to live in peace and harmony and also make the Sri Lankan society a sensitive, creative, wise, active and a just one. The theatre group travels from district to district organising drama and theatre training for youth, providing cultural and spiritual experiences and also giving the people an opportunity to participate in cultural activities.

Nepali Folklore Society (NFS) was established in 1995 as a non-profit academic organisation to promote folklore and folk life studies in the country. The Society has established a mode of folklore studies, disseminated the Nepali concepts of folklore studies and established wider contacts with the folklore societies and scholars from both within the country and abroad. As part of the same process of establishing a wider forum for folklore studies the Society has organized First International Folklore Congress in Kathmandu in 2001, Second International Folklore Congress in Kathmandu in 2003, Third International Folklore Congress in Kathmandu in 2009, Fourth International Folklore Congress in Kathmandu in 2012 and a National Folklore Congress in Kathmandu in 2006. The society collects materials related to folk culture and organizes workshops for the promotion and safeguarding of folklore. They mention that the intangible cultural heritage of Nepal is very much in practice today and not in threat of being extinct and the main responsibility that people have is to be aware of these cultures which are possible only by the dissemination of the documented knowledge.