Chief Minister Visit to SVM Projects in Sohrarim

On September 29, 2021 the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Mr. Conrad K. Sangma paid a visit to three Smart Village Movement projects in Sohrarim, which is well on the way to become the first “Smart Village” in Meghalaya.

He first visited the Gramin Health Care Center, where the Center Manager Rymphang Wanshuwa gave a detailed update of the project operations at Sohrarim. Gramin Health Care Center has been successfully doing teleconsultation, diagnosis and health camps in the nearby villages. HCM was pleased with the Center’s progress in bringing last-mile healthcare access to rural communities. He expressed his interest in replicating the same model in other districts of Meghalaya.

Chief Minister Sangma then visited the Farmer Development Center, a one-stop-shop that supports farmers with advisory services, scaling opportunities and market linkages. This is a sustainable entrepreneur-based model run by a local entrepreneur Peaceful Tariang who is a prospective Center Manager. The entrepreneur plans to do community mobilization with the farmers of the nearby villages and understand their needs before new inputs and services are offered. Once the supply chain is mapped, SVM along with its Partner organizations can help in building market linkages.

Finally, HCM visited the Salesforce Community Trailblazer lab, where he interacted with the Nook Manager- a DEFY project, the Curiosity Gym STEM trainer and the lab’s librarian. Being delighted with this model concept of co-innovation and collaborations and the learning opportunities it brings to rural children, Mr. Sangma said the center was in line with Meghalaya’s youth policy and needed to be scaled up to multiple locations across the state.

Support and funding from a progressive government is the key to successful rural development programs launched by SVM. This visit from the highest ranking official of the State of Meghalaya, is an honor for Smart Village Movement and validates our efforts to scale successful Co-Innovation models throughout the state of Meghalaya and the rest of India.