Calvary Commission of India (CCI) was established in 1983 and served the poor in Andhra Pradesh State. Since 1987, a children home has been established under CCI for the provision of accommodation, food, clothing, education and spiritual nurture to more than 170 children. Those children consist of orphans, street kids and children of Christian workers who serve in the poor communities. CEDAR has been sponsoring CCI’s children ministry since 1997.
The actual literacy rate inBangladeshis around 42%. The existing government schools are far from sufficient to cover the needs of children and most of them are located in cities. World Concern Bangladesh initiated with several local Christian organizations in 1999 to respond to the village children’s needs for schooling. It aims to provide appropriate primary education support to over 3500 neglected, distressed children every year through the community-based primary schools mainly in the rural areas in the country.
CEDAR works in partnership with World ConcernBangladeshto support more than 30 schools with teachers’ salary and education material. Trainings for teachers and sponsorship to poor students are also provided in this project. Local partners select beneficiaries and teachers from target communities and they conduct home visits and regular parents’ day to maximize participation. Teaching on morality are conducted in about 20 schools every Friday.
SATHI conducts the project in a slum area at the outer skirts of Dhaka. There are 7000 families in the area who came from different parts of the country with different cultures and religions, mostly Islamic and Hindu. There is no homogeneity among the residents who do not have any sense to improve their community in concert. Other social problems like child labors, lack of sanitation, bullying & harassment, alcoholic and drug abuses and gambling are not uncommon in the area.
The project aims at emphasizing people’s ownership, community development and sustainability. CEDAR works with SATHI to encourage 1500 individuals to participate in the development activities which enhance their creativity and capability in decision making. They form self-help groups with their own leadership to set goals for the development of the area. Skill trainings in leadership, management and accounting are provided. By way of saving-based programs, the groups set up funds for small business or use in emergency. In addition, project staff conducts healthcare classes and leads discussions on justice and rights issues for the community.
Bangladesh is geographically located in a disaster prone area. Natural disasters are common phenomenon and occur in a regular basis. The present threat of climate change and global warming is a red alert of the country. The frequency and intensity of many existing hazards is increasing while some of new hazards may take place. CEDAR sponsors World Concern to reduce the impact of natural disasters by enhancing life security and building capacity of the vulnerable people through training and skill development.
Besides providing disaster mitigation training to the villagers and stakeholders, the project would also raise the villagers’ awareness on protection of environment. Participants would be trained about direct and indirect impact of climate change. They would also be taught about ways to reduce impact of disasters which would restore the environment simultaneously, e.g. construction of embankment and shelter, tree plantation, maintenance of water system and water sources.
Farza was once a fertile piece of land in Kabul of Afghanistan and was especially famous with its grape vineyards. But it has been for the past few years the frontier of conflicts between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. When the Taliban retreated, people began returning to their villages. The place has been converted into a devastated state by reason of the war. It lacks health and sanitation facilities. It was reported that about 45% of the children there can go to schools, but actually the figure may be lower. People’s living there is difficult by reason of unemployment, lack of arable land, illiteracy, poor health, gender inequalities and vulnerability to disasters.
CEDAR has been supporting our partner in Afghanistan in its services for over 1300 villagers in Farza since 2007. A group based approach is applied in building up relationship of mutual trust, love and aid among the villager members. Each of the 44 self-help groups receives some basic health and literacy education and skills training of different kinds every week.
Agricultural trainings bring solution to villagers’ problem on unbalanced diet. In the project, new farming techniques on fruit tree farming and kitchen gardening are introduced bringing improvement to villagers’ health as well as the environment. A number of livelihood trainings including animal husbandry, fish farming, tailoring and carpet making are also provided. The project also consists of micro-credit loans to assist those unemployed villagers in setting up their own small businesses. Some would do animal and poultry husbandry and sell the fresh eggs and milk in the local bazaar at reasonable price. Meanwhile, women groups will receive education on basic health care bringing improvements to their physical health. The project also encourages mutual aid funds among group members for community developments. Eight of the groups have started money saving plans for installation of water blocks so as to protect their field from flooding.
WHO defines “adolescent” as those aged between 10 and 19. Adolescents are not children but not yet considered to be adult. As a result, they are easily being neglected. During adolescence period, both boys and girls experience physical, psychological and social characteristics changes. They have to prepare themselves for being leaders of future. It is therefore important to provide them knowledge and values on rights and justice issues as well as civil responsibilities.
Nevertheless, many adolescents in Bangladesh do not have schooling opportunities due to poverty. They are illiterate, usually jobless and being ignored most of the time. They, especially girls, know little about their rights and are thus vulnerable. The poor families tend to marry off their daughters as young as 13-14 years old in order to save family expenditure and dowry price. However, it is very difficult for these adolescence girls who are not mature yet to adapt to new lives staying with a new family. Moreover, early marriage and early pregnancy can be very harmful to their lives.
To tackle with this problem, CEDAR supports PARI Development Trust to implement Adolescence Empowerment and Education Project in rural areas of Central Bangladesh. Partner talked about different issues like civil and family responsibilities, relations between two sexes, personal hygiene, psychological health, women rights and marriage issues through games, group discussions and role play to help the adolescence build up rights and justice values. Also, partner train them in vocational skills and build up their capacity for generating income. Meanwhile, seminars are organized for parents, community leaders and religious leaders to let them understand needs of adolescents and encourage them to communicate positively with the adolescents. This project emphasizes girls’ rights and disseminates the bad effect of early marriage in a hope to join hands with parents and community leaders to stop early marriage and early pregnancy to protect the girls.
Rashida was only 15 years old but her father planned to marry her off to a 22-year-old man. Rashida and her mother were told about the bad effect and restrictions of law against early marriage. They seek advice of the local government officials with the help of project staff and finally persuaded her father not to marry her off.
