SJA is a Bangladeshi origin non-profit making private voluntary development organization aiming to provide sustainable measures to improve the conditions of the deprived people especially women and children.

SJA was established in August 1991 by a small group of philanthropists, led by former United Nations Volunteer (under UNDP, Nepal) A H M Faisal Ahmed. They aimed to develop a locally based, not-forprofit and non-political development organization that would operate at a “grassroots” level to address the real needs of economically and socially marginalized members of the community in Sylhet. Initially, the organization specialized in youth development projects to develop young people’s skills and thereby their economic prospects by developing their ability to mobilize manage and control local and external resources by themselves. Since then, SJA is in the journey of a stream of human development activities and has involved itself in development innovation along with quantitative and qualitative expansion.

SJA’s philosophy has always been to empower the most disadvantaged in the community by equipping them with the skills, resources and confidence to improve their own quality of life. Full participation from the community is a core feature of SJA’s projects and the organization’s success may be largely attributed to its flexibility in responding to the needs of the people. Through its work, SJA has always strived to develop its own organizational capacity, particularly in participatory planning, the designing of realistic programs and implementing effective monitoring and quality control initiatives.

SJA has 32 years of working experiences in the development field by skilled manpower with adequate knowledge on group/CBO’s management, mobilizing community people, conducting a mass campaign on different development issues, conducting of rights-based and service delivery intervention, jointly working experience with GoB, LGI and other organizations, SJA has also the working experiences at the whole seven division of the country effectively. The organization now focuses its efforts on Human Rights especially to end Gender Base Violations (GBV); Good Governance; Children Development; Combating diseases like HIV/AIDS, malnutrition; social wounds like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment; and issues like disability, health and family planning, environment and climate change, water resource management, water and sanitation and contributing to achieving 9 goals out of 17 of Sustainable Development Goals.

SJA’s project/programs are being supported by renowned foreign donors, INGO, UN organizations, foreign charities, different ministries of the Government of Bangladesh, and other national organizations. In addition, has vast expertise and experiences to work on collaboratively by the formation of association with like-minded organizations as Lead Organization and as well as an associate partner of the different consortium.

By its efforts, SJA facilitates the impact among its targeted beneficiaries and plays the role of catalyst giving due attention to sustainable impact to ensure the expected changes in their lives.