The Char Development Programme LIVING on the EDGE
02 CDP Living on the Edge PHOTO CREDITS: RDRS staff DESIGN: SW Multimedia Ltd., Dhaka PRINTING: Shimanta Printing & Publishing Co., Dhaka
CDP 03 The Char Development Programme is run by RDRS Bangladesh on the chars (sandbar islands) and adjacent mainland areas along the Brahmaputra River in north-west Bangladesh. It began in 1988 to assist and improve the quality of life of the tenant-farmer communities in this environmentally-vulnerable area. About RDRS The Coochbihar Refugee Service (CBRS), which assisted thousands of people fleeing from war ravaged Rangpur-Dinajpur region of Bangladesh to adjoining Coochbihar in India during the war of liberation in 1971, is the forerunner of RDRS. After the war ended, RDRS was formally established in 1972 as the Bangladesh Field Programme of Lutheran World Federation/Department for World Service (LWF/DWS), Geneva to provide relief, rehabilitation and development assistance to the poor. Later in 1997 RDRS was transformed into a national NGO with an autonomous Board of Trustees and it became an Associated Programme of LWF/DWS. Since its inception in 1972, RDRS has been a leader in integrated development activities in Bangladesh. At present, it offers comprehensive development support including microfinance to the poor, especially women, across ten Districts of the north-west and north-east regions in Bangladesh.
04 CDP RDRS: Working Area Working area 13,164 sq kms Population across the working area 10.4 m Nos. of: Districts 10 Upazilas (sub-districts) 50 Unions 355 Nos. involved in RDRS programmes: Programme participants 1.9 million Federations 260 Groups 20,292 Participant households 337,661 Other clients 150,000 Nos. involved in CDP Chars >100 Char population 700,000 Participants in CDP 230,000 Groups 1,887 Group members 30,302 Federations 21 RDRS Working Area
CDP 05 A Vulnerable Place Of all the RDRS working areas, Kurigram District in the north-west is most affected by flooding and erosion; it is here the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries continually create and destroy low-lying and infertile islands and riverbanks as they criss-cross the flat, sandy plain. The marginalised and dispossessed people who live here do so only at the mercy of unstoppable forces of nature. On the chars, physical disaster as a way-of-live is as certain as the social and economic poverty of a community long cut-off from the mainstream of Bangladesh society.
06 CDP Entering the Mainstream. even if their homes are built on sand, the lives of the char dwellers are based on solid foundations. It was in 1988 that RDRS, with the support of Stromme Memorial Foundation of Norway, began work on the chars. Until that time, some 12 years after the start of its development activities in north-west Bangladesh, the char dwellers had been overlooked by RDRS, other NGOs and Governmental agencies. The chars provided not only an unstable physical base but were home to a very weak and powerless section of society - those unable to find work or homes on the mainland, people who were desperately poor, ill-educated and culturally very conservative. Despite their needs, across the chars, social service provision - in education, health - was almost non-existent and important institutions - such as banks and markets - were only available to those able to sail to the mainland (thus excluding women). The remoteness, the physical barrier of the river, and the lack of voice of its people together ensured that officials and traders were disinterested in the people's welfare and failed to provide adequate resources and support. Consequently, the starting-line for the advancement of char villagers was even lower than had been the case on the mainland 12 years earlier, and conditions there continue to lag behind those found elsewhere in the country. Despite this, there has been remarkable progress and living standards have improved dramatically. Although Government services have improved and other NGOs have moved onto the chars, the main actor in recognising the plight of char communities and in supporting their efforts to advance was and continues to be RDRS. In 1988, RDRS began a pilot project; today, the char population form an integral part of our mainstream development programme. We work in over 100 chars, building-up the human, social, economic, physical and environmental resources to ensure that, even if their homes are built on sand, the lives of the char dwellers are based on solid foundations.
CDP 07 Goals for the Chars Through the CDP, RDRS aims to widen and improve access for all to basic services and so to reduce the vulnerability of char dwellers to both natural disaster and social, political and economic exclusion. We believe that support for livelihood and institutional development will lead to self-empowerment and advancement for individuals, families and communities. Specifically, CDP actions are intended to: Prevent loss of life from natural disasters Reduce loss of land, livestock and other assets due to flood and erosion Promote sustainable economic development Widen access to health and educational services Increase access to land rights for the landless Fight wage exploitation by large, often absentee, landlords Improve access to development inputs and services, especially those available from Government sources.
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CDP 09 Programme Activities Institution and capacity-building among Groups and Federations: RDRS delivers its development programme to 30,000 participants through the 1,203 non-federated Groups and 644 Federated Groups in the char areas. Children's education: In an area deprived of adequate Government provision, RDRS supports 32 part-time, community-based non-formal primary schools with 960 pupils (66% girls). Primary health care: RDRS has filled the gap in health care to those who cannot reach services on the mainland. Clinics provide access to medical staff (including doctors) and medicines for women and children and are slowly improving their chances of living longer, better lives. Income generation, skills-training and savings and credit services: In 2006, some 900 Group Members received skills training to widen earning opportunities; the training courses were appropriate both for those who stay on the chars (mainly women) and those who migrate to the mainland for seasonal on- and off-farm employment (mainly men). Such skills are particularly important to those families who lose their lands to river erosion. The participants not only receive training but, through both their Groups and Federations, have access to the financial resources of RDRS' Micro-finance Programme to invest in their businesses and assets. Disaster preparedness, management and environmental improvements: Living in an extremely unstable and un-caring physical environment, until recently char dwellers had a fatalist attitude to the frequent floods and consequent devastation. In the past, they viewed floodengendered deaths, loss of their land and damage to their homes and
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CDP 11 livestock as God-given and unconquerable. But intensive awareness-raising and training in disaster preparedness by RDRS has increased the char communities' capabilities of riding out the storms brought by the Brahmaputra every year. Today, survival rates (of people and livestock) are much greater, while access to physical and financial resources (savings and credit) for rebuilding livelihoods and homes after flooding is ensured. Environmental improvements, such as ground-raising and tree-planting have added to preservation of communities. Legal education: While women everywhere in Bangladesh are downtrodden, by virtue of their communities' conservatism and the remoteness of their villages, women on the chars suffer greater isolation and repression. Here, there are still alarmingly-high rates of early marriage, divorce and polygamy with women being less free to work and move about than their sisters on the mainland. To ensure sustainability of its development activities and the advancement of the whole community, RDRS considers direct support to women as vital; it does this through raising awareness of women's and human rights and providing support to abused women. Adolescents' training: From its long experience in development, RDRS is well-aware that future of any community is determined by the young, and so encourages young people on the chars to attend social education classes informing them of their rights, responsibilities and providing them with the skills essential to good citizens. Agriculture extension: To improve living standards across the chars, 85 Farmer Field Schools promote a farmer-friendly sustainable extension approach increasing accessibility to resources and services. These allow farmers to share their experiences (successes and failures), to discuss new ideas and to resolve problems through a participatory approach.
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CDP 13 A new intervention: Char Livelihoods Programme (CLP) The purpose of the CLP is to reduce the amount of extreme poverty in the riverine areas of Bangladesh by 2015 by improving livelihood security among the poor and mostvulnerable char dwellers. In its role as implementing partner since 2005, RDRS is working in Kurigram District with 2 million people from the poorest households. These include single women (abandoned or widowed); the disabled (women and men); those unable to work; adolescent girls; and, children. The CLP's linked components are infrastructure development, improved livelihoods, enterprise promotion and social mobilisation. The CLP is funded by UK's DFID and sponsored by the Rural Development and Co-operative Division, Government of Bangladesh. Char Livelihoods Programme (CLP)
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CDP 15 Moving Forward For Shahara Begum, it remains a miracle how she found a route out of poverty. Until a few years ago, she was wretchedly poor, living on less than US$ 1 a day - the United Nations extreme poverty yardstick. Life was hard as tenant farmers on Manushmara Char. But it became even harder when the family's land was washed away by the mighty Brahmaputra River, leaving them destitute and desperate. In those dark days, they even had to resort to forcing Shahara's eldest daughter unwillingly into an early marriage so that at least she would be fed. But that was a long-time ago, before this enterprising woman joined a CDP Group. With her first loan of 2,000 Tk, she bought a calf and has never looked back. Investing the profits from her four loans into cows, the 27-year-old has been able to buy land and build a house for her family. She even has a tubewell and pucca latrine, both rare sights on Manushmara, but bright beacons for the future of Shahara Begum, her family and their community.
RDRS Bangladesh House-43, Road-10, Sector-6 Uttara Model Town, Dhaka-1230 Bangladesh Tel: +8802-8954384-6 Fax: +8802-8954391 Email: rdrs@bangla.net Website: www.rdrsbangla.net www.rdrsbangla.net