 Shafiqual Haque Choudhury and a team of people who were then working for other established NGOs, but who themselves were arguing for a more radical way to alleviate the exploitation of rural villages caused by the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities.The founding framework of ASA was aimed at empowering rural landless villagers from the "bottom up" through "people's organizations".These were run by volunteers who advocated that a consciousness for solidarity amongst the village poor would lead to collective social action.