Q: Who are ShilpiSewa?
A: ShilpiSewa is a group of Assamese people in North America and Canada, who has taken upon a philanthropic task to provide financial relief to local artistes of Assam with support from entire Assamese diaspora across the globe. These artistes are sole earners of their families and due to Covid-19 and flood in Assam have caused loss of income. This fundraiser is in a way like paying back our debt to these artistes for showcasing Assamese culture in regional, national and international platforms and their contribution to the traditions of folk music in our society.
Q: Is Shilpisewa helping artistes across Assam or specific region?
A: Artistes from entire Assam are eligible if deserving to receive financial help. We are doing our best to find deserving artistes from all over Assam.
Q: Are there any beneficiary from flood effected area of Assam?
A: Yes, several of the beneficiaries of this fundraiser are severely effected by this year's flood beside the global pandemic causing unimaginable hardship to them and their families.
Q: Will 100% of the collected funds from this fundraiser be distributed to these beneficiaries?
A: We have made arrangements to disburse 100% of the funds raised to the beneficiaries directly to ensure funds receive by the beneficiaries only. The funds are collected through various means including PayPal and after the event of Aug 15th, 2020 shall be transferred to beneficiaries in Assam and that process require us to pay minimal fees or service charges which are unfortunately unavoidable. All of ShilpiSewa members are volunteering and joined hands from across USA and Canada with one objective and that is to help these deserving artistes of Assam. ShilpiSewa members themselves have donated to this cause generously beside giving their time and effort past 4-6 weeks. We are all involved in this fundraiser with a philanthropic heart, so please donate generously. These generous donations will give each of the beneficiary families much needed financial help. An audit and financial report will be made available in this website after the live event as we disburse the money to beneficiaries in Aug/Sep 2020.
Q: How were the names of the beneficiaries obtained?
A: ShilpiSewa team, concerned for the welfare of Folk Artistes of Assam, contacted reputed persons or organizations of Assam who are involved in various event management and music production studios. These person or organizations then located such deserving artistes who are genuine folk artistes across Assam including some remote places and nominated their names to ShilpiSewa for consideration. These persons and organizations are mentioned under 'Acknowledgement' section of homepage. Upon receiving these nominated beneficiary names through these reputed sources from Assam, ShilpiSewa team are started speaking to these probable beneficiaries individually to understand their problems to give them hope and promised some support from Assamese around the globe.
Q: What is the ShipliSewa beneficiary selection process?
A: The selection process require each of these nominated beneficiaries go through a very stringent criteria as determined members of ShilpiSewa which includes, but not limited to, asking artistes about their financial status, source of income in the family, job status, and number of dependents in the family. These beneficiaries required to provide their credentials and performing art pictures, any certificates, if available, news article and recorded video before we added to the list of confirmed beneficiaries. Members of ShilpiSewa team directly contacting all nominated beneficiaries individually to discuss and obtain beneficiary details to ensure only deserving beneficiaries receive your generous donations. Due to time difference only few beneficiaries can be contacted each night or weekends by our volunteers who are also busy with other tasks such as fundraising effort and planning for the live event, but nonetheless we are committed only genuine artistes of Assam qualify through this process.
Bene list are always accepted from known sources only
Each beneficiary goes thru the following selection criteria
Music/theater/culture is the only source of income
Must be above 18 years of age
Sole earner of the family
Never received pension
Do not have firm land
Must share short video clip of performance or activities
Must share bank details and bank account must belong to the beneficiary
Shilpi Sewa directly deposits the funds to the beneficiary’s account without any intervention of a third party.
Q: Is ShilpiSewa a Nonprofit or Forprofit organization?
A: ShilpiSewa is neither a Nonprofit nor a For-profit organization as we are not registered IRS organization yet. This is a group of individual volunteers across USA and Canada who came together to manage this fundraiser with the intention of helping artistes of Assam. With your generous donation you have joined this effort now.
Q: How many Beneficiaries is ShilpiSewa targeting to provide financial help?
A: The number of beneficiaries who will be benefited from this fundraiser is targeted presently at a 100-140 based on results of beneficiary credential check and depending on the funds raised.
Q: Are all other artistes from Assam who are not folk artistes, and are struggling financially due to the pandemic eligible for the ShilpiSewa fund?
A: ShilpiSewa effort is to help primarily the folk artistes of Assam. However during this process we have come across few nominated beneficiaries who are non-folk artistes of Assam, while few such artists won't be beneficiary of this fundraiser due to better financial condition primarily, some of these are found equally deserving our financial help and upon reviewing their credentials within ShilpiSewa we felt we may be able to make a few exceptions knowing the financial hardship these non-folk artistes are going through. However before confirming these non-folk artistes, the folk artists of Assam who are deserving financial help shall get first priority to receive the ShilpiSewa fund and this process is in progress.
Q: Will the selected beneficiaries of ShilpiSewa get the fund directly to their account or are there any intermediary person or organization involved?
A: ShilpiSewa members are directly contacting the beneficiaries and collecting individual personal bank account details of these deserving artistes. This is done so that we don't have to rely on others in the middle to transfer the fund such as NGOs. We want 100% of the funds raised, thanks to your generous donations, shall be distributed among these deserving folk artistes of Assam and bring some relief to them and their loved ones.
Q: How may I help by becoming a sponsor
A: ShilpiSewa appreciate your interest and philanthropic intentions for our effort towards helping artistes of Assam. We appreciate any donations and thank all donors. However we are still short of our goal and to reach our goal we have only few days left before this fundraiser ends. We are looking for sponsors who are willing to donate $250 or more, we already have few sponsors who we thank for their support. You are welcome to donate $250 or more cumulatively, especially if you have already donated less than $250 already, by donating additional amount to reach $250 and beyond or in one payment to become our sponsor. Please connect with a member of ShilpiSewa to arrange for becoming a sponsor.