Update on our work in Bangladesh
December 1995
by Prof. Badiul Alam Majumdar, Country Director
We have a two-prong strategy - a council in the capital that works to transform government policy, and a massive volunteer movement in the countryside to work directly to eliminate hunger. This movement is now in 50 of Bangladesh's 64 districts.
Our mobilization campaign is designed to overcome the prevailing mindset of helplessness and dependency which are instrumental in creating the current reality of widespread hunger. It calls forth people's leadership to create a vision for a self-reliant future, to be committed to it and then to take the necessary actions. These actions - by individuals, by mobilized groups and in partnership with others - are designed to solve the challenges confronting the hungry and help them achieve self-reliance.
This campaign is carried out by a group of "animators" (workshop leaders). We trained the first group of animators in 1993. This past December, we trained a second group of about 150 animators in addition to 30 facilitator candidates. We have now become the largest volunteer movement in the country.
We have so far reached over 70,000 Bangladeshis by our campaign. Many of them have already initiated important on-the-ground actions to achieve a "second liberation" - a liberation from hunger and poverty.
Hunger-free zones: Recently, volunteers in 15 areas initiated a pioneering, comprehensive approach designed to mobilize everyone in a village and empower them to take actions for improving their lives. They save a small amount every week and meet on a regular basis to find ways and means to solve the challenges they face. The accumulated savings in all hunger-free zones is over $12,000.
Some of their recent actions include:
- Sanitation and Safe Drinking Water Campaign: Lack of good sanitation and safe drinking water is the reason for poor health and low life expectancy of many villagers. In the past few months, our volunteers have assisted villagers to install about 5,500 sanitary latrines and 250 handpumps. This program was implemented in partnership with the government and NGO Forum - a consortia of NGOs working on these issues.
- Education: Removing illiteracy is one of the stands of our volunteers. They are now running 135 non-formal educational centers for adults and 90 for adolescents in three locations. This program is also carried out in partnership with the government.
- Nurseries and plantation: Our volunteers have organized nurseries in 13 of the hunger-free zones. These nurseries make available seedlings of vegetables and fruit and other trees. This year, over 150,000 saplings were produced and distributed from these nurseries. In addition to the environmental consideration, one of the main purposes of this program is to improve the nutritional level of the villagers. A total of 400,000 saplings were planted by our volunteers this year.
- Health centers: Creating people's institutions through local-level planning to solve local problems is essential for the success of the hunger-free zone strategy. In three of the hunger-free zones, two health care centers have already been organized through local initiatives, using primarily local resources. These centers are run by instituting a system of pre-paid health insurance. The Hunger Project is a partner in this endeavor.
- Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) campaign: Bangladesh has been devastated by floods three times this year. Our volunteers, especially young volunteers, have carried out the ORT campaign in the flood-affected areas to prevent unnecessary diarrheal deaths. During the campaign, they distributed packages of oral rehydration salts and water purification tablets among villagers.
- Income opportunities: Creating new income opportunities is the central focus of the hunger-free zone strategy. Many such opportunities have been or are being created through the initiatives of our volunteers. For example:
- In Noakhali district, villagers have become mobilized, with the help of our volunteers, to construct embankments for growing an additional rice crop by de-watering with pumps in the monsoon season. The project, which went into effect this season, is successful and will be formally inaugurated tomorrow by the Deputy Commissioner. It will double the income of the people and they are now thinking of a third crop and fish farming with rice production for next year.
- In Joypur Hat, they have procured the lease of three ponds from the government and initiated a fish farming project.
- In Narsingdi, a pharmacy has been started for the local people to meet the expenses of their self-help organization and a fish farming project has been initiated as an income-earning opportunity for the people mobilized by our volunteers.
- In Laksam, two of the self-help groups initiated fish farming projects to boost their income.
- In Mirsari, volunteers mobilized the rickshaw pullers and have initiated a project to make them owners of their own rickshaws.
Click to jump back to update from 1994.