PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES

Current Projects

WRTCP                   

The Women’s Rights Training and Counseling Project (WRTCP)

It is a recognized fact that, promotion and protection of women's rights has been one of the key focal areas of BDPC's programming directions in national as well as local level programming.

Women’s Rights Training and Counseling Project (WRTCP) was undertaken by BDPC in 1994 in two Thanas of Jessore and Jhenidah districts with three components such as a) advocacy, awareness raising and social mobilization; b) counseling and support to women and children; c) formation and development of a grassroots level citizen's network for women’s rights; and d) monitoring, information collection and campaign against human trafficking, women and children in particular, acid throwing and sexual abuse of children. The project works very closely with the GOB Department of Women Affairs (DWA) and the Upazila Nari O Shishu Nirjatan Protirodh Committee at the Upazila level. 

The project commenced in 1994 with financial support from the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Dhaka. German donor agency MISEREOR has been funding the project since July 1998.

The project is currently in implementation in eight districts of Bangladesh, namely – Dhaka, Jessore, Jhenidah, Narail, Magura, Chuadanga, Kushtia and Satkhira. At the same time the project has networking linkages through local partner NGOs in Barisal, Patuakhali, Rajshahi, Meherpur and Rangpur districts. A Field Manager heads each of the offices in these seven districts.

The uniqueness of the project is that it operates in remote rural districts and outreaches the destitute in remotest areas. At the same time it directly benefits the most distressed and vulnerable women and children. There are very few projects in the country that allows so much access to legal services for the people in need in the remote areas. The project has helped hundreds of women who were on the verge of divorce and/or permanent separation to get back a family.

As of 30 April 2003, a total of 6622 persons, mostly women and adolescent girls have received legal counseling through the 12 counseling centres of the Project. 2133 of them got their problem resolved through Salish (ADR) organized by BDPC while 200 others who received legal assistance got favorable verdict from formal courts. 

The other major activities of the project was training for project participants, volunteers and staff in the fields of human/women/child rights, Advocacy, Networking and Leadership, and Organization Management. Other activities of the project included national and international day observance, issue based rallies, networking seminar, etc.         

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SHAHAR Project     <<back>>

The Supporting Household Activities for Hygiene, Assets and Revenue (SHAHAR) Project is a tripartite partnership project wherein CARE Bangladesh, concerned Pourashava and the Bangladesh Development Partnership Centre (BDPC) are the partners. The SHAHAR Project is being implemented in Jessore and Tongi Pourashava (Municipal) areas. It is absolutely an urban development project that focuses mainly on the slum dwelling and low-income urban poor. The Pourashava is the first party to the contract representing the Local Government Division (LGD) of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (MLGRD&C) while BDPC is the second party responsible for implementing the social development components of the project and CARE Bangladesh is the third party responsible for monitoring the project activities.  

The SHAHAR project commenced from July 2000 and the partnership is for five years primarily, and designed to continue up to ten years in each Pourashava. BDPC has two partnerships in Jessore and Tongi Pourashavas with responsibility of working for the development of nearly 2900 families in Jessore and 2400 families in Tongi. Being an integrated project, it has four major components, namely,  

(a)    Social mobilization, advocacy and networking;

(b)   Income and employment generation,

(c)    Health, hygiene and nutrition,

(d)   Rights education, and

(e)    Institutional strengthening at community and Pourashava levels. 

The project operates with 88 women groups in Jessore and 59 women groups in Tongi. These groups have six apex organizations in Jessore and three apex organizations in Tongi. These apex bodies are known as the Community Resource Management Committee (CRMC). CRMC members are democratically elected representatives of the groups.  

Besides the project has two all time school, one in Tongi and one in Jessore to facilitate education of the working children. Performance of these two centres has been excellent. Education activities under this project have been reported in the Education Program Section. 

The project has a very strong continuous education component for rights education, awareness raising and life skill learning mainly focusing on women and children.

Disable Support Program       <<back>>

It is a new initiative of BDPC. BDPC conducted a survey on disabled people in the district of Narail. The purpose was to identify their problems and potentials so that BDPC could assist them to undertake individual or collective initiatives for education, rehabilitation, development and empowerment. In the first stage BDPC has identified 61 disabled people in the district and has provided them with recreational facilities at BDPC Office at Narail. Also BDPC has been working with the group to establish a local leadership group of disabled people who could operate through a monthly meeting at the beginning – before the disabled people themselves could make out a strategic plan for their own development and empowerment.

Education Program          <<back>>

BDPC Education is a major component of BDPC activities. Education program is implemented through almost all the projects. The child sponsorship and Education project is the main focus of BDPC’s basic education program in the Dhaha City. While SHAHAR is the focus of education program in Tongi and Jesore. The woen’s Rights Training and Counseling project contributes part of the education program in Jessore and Narail, while the Rural Livelihood Security Project (Post Flood Rehabilitation Project has major contribution in the education activities in Narail Sadar Upazila.

BDPC education program activities in 2002 were implemented in Dhaka City, Jessore and Narail districts through 10 Pre-primary and 6 primary education centres; 10 non-formal and 22 post literacy and continuous education centres; two all time schools in Tongi and Jessore Pourashava areas. BDPC’s education program was mainly focused on children, adolescents, women and adult participants. 

At a glance performance of the Education Program was as follows: 

Child Sponsorship and Education Project      <<back>>

Child Sponsorship and Education Project is the continuation of the Urban Adolescent Support Project that was implemented by BDPC in the Dhaka City and Narail Sadar Upazila. It is mainly an education support and child survival project. In the Dhaka City the project is implemented mainly in Ward 42 and Ward 46 under Mohammadpur Police Station of the Dhaka City Corporation. This project was initiated in 1997 with locally raised funds. 

There were 6 pre-primary, 3 primary, 3 non-formal and 8 continuous education centres in Dhaka City in 2002 under this project with 544 participants, mostly children, adolescents and women. The project faced a serious set back in 1999 when the government evicted a number of slum in the Dhaka City including some of the area that was under operation of this project.  

Some of those children who received education grant

under the Child Sponsorship Project

Other than literacy, participants of this project receive personal health and hygiene education, rights education and skill training like PRA / PLA. They receive instruments for games and sports. A selected number of participants receive one time small education grant on annual basis. These groups observe national and international days of their interest, particularly they observe the child rights day with much enthusiasm.

Rights and Legal Aid Program        <<back>>

BDPC follows a very strong rights based approach for its programs and projects since inception. All the BDPC projects have strong rights education and campaign components. Beyond that BDPC has a general human rights program that covers human, women and child Rights. In addition, BDPC has civil rights, consumer rights and democratic rights programs. Democratic rights program is deeply linked with the governance program. 

Under rights program, BDPC has very strong Salish (arbitration) as well as alternative dispute resolution (ADR) activities. These activities are implemented through district based legal counseling centres. 

Fact finding of serious violation of human rights is another strong area of intervention by BDPC. The organization has well reputation and goodwill in conducting fact finding and supporting the legal system to ensure justice. In a number of cases BDPC fact finding reports were instrumental for bringing the criminals to justice and ensuring punishment.  

BDPC provides CRC and CEDAW based training to NGO and social workers. BDPC actively campaigns and lobbies for implementation of UN instruments that ensure rights to man, woman and children. 

BDPC has project component for providing legal support to commercial sex workers as a routine activity. In addition BDPC also goes to courts for public interest litigation.

Post Flood Rehabilitation Project, Narail (Rural              Livelihood Security Project)                              <<back>>

The Post Flood Rehabilitation Project was a response to the Flood 1998 in the district of Narail. The project was undertaken with financial assistance from MISREOR (through Caritas Bangladesh) to support 260 flood-affected families with limited amount of free seeds. In addition, they were provided with interest –free loans for the first year for agricultural production. A reasonable service charge (10%) has been introduced from the second year of loan distribution. Eventually the project has been restructured as a “rural livelihood security project” by introducing a few humanitarian policies that allows BDPC to ensure more benefits for the participants.                   

Two of the important elements of the policies are, (a) any amount of outstanding loan of a deceased person will be absolutely written off, and (b) introduction of a weekly one taka savings with a benevolent fund that guarantees instant payment of taka five thousand to the family of a deceased group-member. 

Approximately 400 women have been participating in this project and approximately a total fund of Tk. 782,000 is in operation of the project as of December 2001. 

In addition, some other components have been included in this project for ensuring further benefit to the participating communities. This means inclusion of other activities like pre-primary education, primary education, non-formal education and continuous education for the participating families, mainly for children, adolescents and women. Currently there are 8 education centres in Narail particularly under this project. It has been reported in the education program section.

Networking and Advocacy Lobbying         <<back>>

Networking is one of the areas that made BDPC widely known in the development sector and helped the organization to establish linkages with various stakeholders locally, regionally and globally. BDPC believes in multi-sector networking with actors in development. To BDPC, networking is a very strong collective strength that can be asserted in many positive ways ensuring greater participation. It has been mentioned earlier that BDPC is affiliated with a number of national and international networks. 

Besides, BDPC has strong linkage with the Geneva based World Organization against Torture (OMCT) and the Hong Kong based Asian Centre for the Progress of People (ACPP) in terms of sending urgent appeals wherever and whenever required for protection of human rights. BDPC has membership with the international network or forum "The Coalition to stop the use of Child Soldiers, London, UK".

Institutional Capacity Building Support         <<back>>

BDPC has been providing capacity building support to three National level civil society networks. they are the Nari O Manabadhikar Foundation (NAMAF - Foundation for Women and Human Rights); the Bangladesh Coalition for Child Rights(BCCR) ; and the Nadi Shikasti Gono Adhikar Forum (NASHGAF - Forum for the rights of river erosion affected people). BDPC hosts the secretariat of all these three networks and provides day to day secretarial support.  BDPC is also providing support to these networks for registration with a competent authority.

The Nari O Manabadhikar Foundation (Foundation for Women and Human Rights) is a network of more than 450 NGOs who work in the field of human, women and child rights; particularly against torture, abuse and trafficking.

The Bangladesh Coalition for Child Rights (BCCR) is the Bangladesh chapter of the London based Coalition to stop the use of Child soldiers. BDPC is the focal point of the coalition in Bangladesh. Currently the Bangladesh Coalition has 57 members.

The Nadi Shikasti Gono Adhikar Forum (NASHGAF - Forum for the rights of river erosion affected people) is a network of more than two hundred NGOs and civil societies who have been campaigning for the rights and rehabilitation people rendered homeless due to river erosion.

In addition, BDPC organizes regular "Non-profit Board Management Training" for NGOs and civil societies in order for strengthening their institutional capacity.

Urgent Appeal                        <<back>>

BDPC has a very strong “Urgent Appeal” campaign in relation to human rights abuse, violence and injustice. BDPC sent out more than 68 separate urgent appeals in 2002 to authorities in   Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Israel, Peru, and Honduras seeking their intervention in relation to serious violation of human rights, particularly concerning crimes against children and minority groups. Inside Bangladesh, BDPC submitted 483 urgent appeals to the Prime Minister, the Home minister, the Home Secretary, The Inspector General of Police, Deputy Commissioners, Police Superintendents and so on seeking justice for serious violation of human rights – mainly crimes against women and children, as of April 2003.