Program Interventions

Micro-credit Program

Microfinance is a source of financial services for the poor people and small businesses lacking access to financial and related services. DUS emphasizes microfinance as a movement whose object is “a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, including not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers.” DUS believe that such access will help poor people out of poverty. Some also believe that microfinance is a way to promote economic development, employment and growth through the support of micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Microfinance is a broad category of services, which includes microcredit. Microcredit is provision of credit services to poor clients. Microcredit is one of the aspects of microfinance and the two are often confused. Critics may attack microcredit while referring to it indiscriminately as either ‘microcredit’ or ‘microfinance’, but whatever the debate Micro-finance or Micro-credit supports to enhance financial inclusion.

Microfinance and poverty: Stuart Rutherford and Sukhwinder Arora had written a book titled The Poor and Their Mone, which cite several types of needs, which could be addressed through Micro-finance and/or Micro-credit:

Lifecycle Needs: such as weddings, funerals, childbirth, education, home building, widowhood and old age.
Personal Emergencies: such as sickness, injury, unemployment, theft, harassment or death.
Disasters: such as fires, floods, cyclones and man-made events like war or bulldozing of dwellings.
Investment Opportunities: expanding a business, buying land or equipment, improving housing, securing a job.

DUS & Micro-finance: DUS follows the principles of Micro-finance to support the poor and the poorest of the poor, at the same time it supports small businesses so that the poor can get out of the shackle of poverty forever. The specific goal of the DUS Micro-finance program is to reduce poverty and empowerment of target people specially women through capital formation and entrepreneurship development.

Specific objectives of DUS is

To organize poor people particularly women for creating self confidence and enthusiasm to self development through formation of group
Capital formation through savings mobilization and providing access to financial sources
Local resource collection and its maximum utilization
To involve target people specially women with the Production
To promote employment through capacity development
To provide/arrange capital for entrepreneur for running their business/enterprises, and
To facilitate entrepreneur for establishing linkage with market through value chain concept.

The beneficiaries and the project clients under DUS Micro-finance program till to date is 55,000 borrowers.

ENRICH (Enhancing Resources and Increasing Capacities of Poor Households towards Elimination of their Poverty)

ENRICH is a program of PKSF (Pally Karma Sahayak Foundation) conducted at the grassroots level focusing for overall household development of the poor based on a ‘One Union One PO’ principle. The program targets poor families, working with them to enhance and maximize the utilization of their resources and skills. ENRICH aims to alleviate poverty not only through income generation but through a holistic approach targeting other crucial aspects of human life including health, education, youth development, community development, etc, the goal being sustainable development driven by the people themselves.

By working with selected households in association with the local government and committed stakeholders, ENRICH catalyses the households’ efforts to lift them out of poverty. The overall goal of the program is to ensure human dignity and freedom by gradually reducing poverty in a sustainable manner, towards total elimination at the household and community level in the unions, and ultimately, throughout the country. By nurturing the skills potential of poor households, ENRICH encourages and assists them in changing to their economic status. Access to appropriate technology, as well as access to health and education services, will ensure increase in productivity, allowing them optimize returns from market operations. It is crucial for the success of this program that the households themselves are eager and willing to pave the road to their development, a task which requires time, hard work and patience.

DUS is one of the valued Partner Organizations (PO)-NGO of the PKSF, which intervenes in the areas of 1) Dhanshiri Union. Upazilla :Kabir Hat District : Noakhali, and 2) Nizhum Dwip Union. Upazilla : Hatiya. District : Noakhali.

DUS provides services under this ENRICH program, which are as follows:

Non formal education has been provided to 600 children in 20 education centers (from Nursery to Class II)
Health Services has been provided through Satellite Clinics where government medical officers provide services (one male and one female physicians visit on each Tuesday and provide services in two separate Unit Offices of ENRICH Project at Dhanshiri and Nizhum Dwip Union)
Two Paramedics provide health services through two separate static clinics, and
Health Volunteers provide health and nutrition related awareness through courtyard meeting.

Major Achievements of Enrich Program (Dhanshiri)

  • of Health Camps : 00
  • of Satellite Clinics : 06
  • of Static Clinics : 30
  • of Non Formal Schools : 20

Major Achievement of Enrich Program (Nizhum Dwip)

  • of Health Camps : 02
  • of Satellite Clinics : 22
  • of Static Clinics : 231
  • of Non Formal Schools : 20

UPP-Ujjibito Project

The vulnerability and persistence of poverty among the rural households have always been the focus of attention for development agencies of different categories for providing coping strategies that would empower the local communities with improved and increased access to resources for a sustainable impact. The incidence of extreme poor is characterized by insufficient income, poor health, acute malnutrition, illiteracy and a high concentration of wage laborers in the households with limited assets, female-headed households (widows, divorcees), destitute women and large family size. The vulnerability of these ultra poor households is further exacerbated by their inability to reduce the risk of natural disasters. In many instances, the vulnerable households do not have any viable coping strategies. They need interventions which help them to ensure sustainable poverty reduction as envisaged by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In this context, the EU funded “Food Security 2012 Bangladesh-Ujjibito” project of PKSF, which began its operation from November 2013. Ujjibito is a Bangla word meaning ‘infused with new life’. This project has two components of which one is supporting LGED’s Rural Employment and Road Maintenance Programme Phase-2

(RERMP-2), which commenced from October 2013. RERMP-2 is a GoB-funded project and will cover all unions of the country with EU providing funds for 27,400 beneficiaries in 1,370 focal unions in Barisal, Khulna and Rajshahi Divisions (except Bogra district). The other component is supporting PKSF’s Ultra Poor programme (UPP)-Ujjibito covering 1,724 unions in Barisal, Khulna, Rajshahi and Chittagong Divisions (1,479 in Barisal, Khulna, Rajshahi and 245 unions in coastal upazilas of Chittagong Division), which started from November 2013.

The project has incorporated the learning of numerous food securities and social safety net projects targeting ultra poor that have been implemented in Bangladesh over the past decade. Ujjibito project mostly combines the best practices of the GoB funded Rural Employment and Road Maintenance Programme (RERMP), the EU co-funded Rural Employment Opportunities for Public Assets (REOPA) project and PKSF’s Ultra Poor Programme, with the objective of sustainable graduation out of rural ultra poverty through a combination of public safety nets, social and livelihood development support and longer term linkage with micro-finance.

DUS & UJJIBITO: DUS is one of the Partner Organizations (PO)-NGO of the PKSF (Pally Karma Sahayak Foundation)-UJJIBITO Project, which has began working from January2014

Working Area :

Greater Noakhali District
Services under UPP Program

  • Training support for members for agriculture and non-agricultural activities promotion
  • Technical support for income earnings and employment generation
  • Skill development of the poor settlers
  • Social Development through Health Care Service

Major Achievement of Ujjibito Project

  • Homestead gardening : 325
  • Poultry and live stock development : 125
  • Agriculture seed distribution : 2500HS
  • Asset transfer : 155HS
  • Equipment handed over : 10Set
  • Health service provided : 7000

SMART (Security, Market Access, Rights & Transparency in Coastal Bangladesh)

SMART Project of DUS is supported by ICCO Netherlands and the services provided under this project are to ensure are Safety, Market Access & Rights of the people.

Work areas under SMART Project are Subornochar, Kabirhat, Begumganj, Hatiya and Noakhali Sadar under the District of Noakhali.
Major Achievements under SMART project so far are:

  • Baseline Survey completed among 5000 farmer families.
  • 10 groups of marginal farmers and hard core poor farmers were formed and each group consists of 25 farmers.
  • Selection of lead farmers has been completed.
  • Training on modern technology on vegetable cultivation was provided to 554 marginal farmers
  • 554 marginal farmers were provided improved quality of seeds.
  • Inception workshop held at district level.
  • Trainings: All staff received training on Modern technology on vegetable cultivation. 5 daylong training alternative livelihood held at
  • CODEC training centre, Chittagong. A 5 daylong right based training on khasland was held at the Chandina Nijera Kori Training
  • Centre at Comilla). A 3 daylong family micro plan training was held at CODEC training centre, Chittagong)

CDSP (Char Development & Settlement Project-IV)

The overall goal of this project is to reduce the poverty and hunger of poor people living on newly accreted coastal chars. This will be achieved through the promotion of improved and more secure rural livelihoods in agriculture, and the provision of legal title to land and climate-resilient infrastructure. The CDSP-IV project would benefit the entire population living on the selected chars through the development of water management, communications, water supply, cyclone protection and other infrastructure. Within this population, sections of the community that are highly disadvantaged will be targeted for additional support. Direct beneficiaries would be totaled to approximately 28,000 households (about 155,000 people). The project is being implemented on newly emerged chars (areas of freshly accreted land) in the south-eastern coastal zone of Bangladesh. It will cover parts of three districts: Noakhali (including Hatiya), Laxmipur and Chittagong. Accreted land on the coastal zone is highly vulnerable to extreme climatic events and climate change.

The project has five components, which are:

  • Protection from climate change.
  • Internal infrastructure.
  • Land settlement and titling.
  • Support for livelihoods.
  • Technical assistance and management support.

DUS is a Partner Organization of this project, which works in Kaladur Bazar Char Nangulia & Bhumihin bazar of Nolarchar of Hatiya Upazila under the District of Noakhali.
The services so far provided through the CDSP Project are:

Group Formation, Micro finance and Capacity Building
Provision of Health and Family Planning services
Water and Sanitation
Homestead Agriculture and Value Chain Development
Provision of Legal and Human Rights
Disaster Management and Climate Change
Poultry & Livestock programmed, and
Development of Fisheries.

Major Achievements CDSP project under each component are as follows:

Health and Family Planning Component

  • Health forum held : 4,044
  • ORS distribution : 137,320
  • De-worming distribution : 99,188
  • Contraceptive distribution : 31,009
  • Micro nutrient distribution : 72,198
  • Delivery handled by TBA : 1,296
  • Patients Treated : 9,155
  • Mobile clinic held : 619
  • Pregnant women treated : 2,028
  • World health day observe : 3
  • Static clinic held : 772

Group Formation, Micro finance and Capacity Building Component

  • House hold surveyed : 4,922
  • Groups formed : 146
  • Member admitted : 4,241
  • Savings Balance (TK) : 11,516,132
  • Loan disbursed (TK) : 116,161,000
  • Total loan outstanding (TK) : 22,474,698
  • Number of borrower : 2,867

Agriculture and Value Chain Development Component

  • Farmers received seed, seedling & Signboard etc.(Demo plot) : 622
  • Trained farmer received inputs : 1200
  • Nursery development : 19
  • seedling sold : 73,852
  • seedling sold (TK) : 573,299
  • Vermi compost production : 4
  • Hand spare distribution : 80
  • Value chain project developed : 160

Legal and Human Rights Component

  • Number of marriage organized : 416
  • Marriage registered : 393
  • Early marriage stopped : 7
  • Number of LHR course completed(21day) : 57
  • Day observed on human rights : 2
  • Women rights day observed : 3
  • Child rights day observed : 6

Water and Sanitation Component

  • TUG formed : 227
  • DTW site selected : 227
  • DD submitted to DPHC : 216
  • DTW installed : 206
  • DTW platform constructed : 191
  • TUG meeting held : 830
  • of latrine Installed :1,400

Disaster Management and Climate Change Component

  • Meeting held on disaster preparedness & mitigation : 690
  • Meeting with disaster committee : 3
  • of Improve cooking system developed : 221
  • NDPD observed : 3
  • Environment day observed : 3

Climate Change and Disaster Management

DUS is geographically located at a severe disaster risk area of Coastal Bangladesh. Most of its beneficiaries as well as core staffs and volunteers including general members experiences the severity of the natural disaster on a regular basis and also learn the coping mechanism from the disaster risks. DUS has experienced and was active during the severe natural disasters of November 1070, flooding of 1998, SIDR of 2007 and other disasters from 1988 to 1991 and it engaged itself in relief & rehabilitation during those disasters to support the disaster affected mankind. DUS is now moving beyond relief and rehabilitation into institutionalized preparedness, risk reduction and management interventions as well as long term adaptation strategies driven by lessons learnt while helping communities in coping with the devastating effects of the severe disasters.

DUS is now implementing its Climate Change and Disaster Management Program for four thousand six hundred and five (4,605) households in two char area of Hatiya Upazilla in collaboration with GoB with the financial support of the Netherlands Government. The main component of the program is to focus on awareness on climate change issues and disaster preparedness through organizing and conducting disaster preparedness and mitigation issues to the staffs as well as group members. Over the project period, numbers of refresher trainings will also be conducted. A number of pilot activities had been incorporated in this program like introducing new climate resistance technologies e.g. improve stove, bio-digesters and wave/flood protection measures such as house-plinth-raining, strengthening to demonstrate effectiveness of these technologies for replication through private initiatives.

DUS mobilizes Union Disaster Management Committee (UDMC) with overall responsibility for disaster related issues of a union. One of the vital components of the Program is activating UDMC as per the Government structure and functioning them actively. In this way DUS has linked with UDMC and arrange meeting and organized training on awareness raising on disaster and climate issues.

DUS CCDM Program is also comprised with Climate-Resilient Infrastructure sub component which will be implemented by the LGED. Infrastructure for communications, market access and cyclone protection would be built on the respective area. This would include roads, bridges, culvers, cyclone shelter-cum school, killas, markets etc. These activities would be undertaken by LCS which would channel income directly to some of the poorest women who will be selected from the group members.

Health Program

Healthcare interventions have been an integral aspect of DUS’s holistic and rights based approach to development right from its inception. The two major objectives of the DUS Health Program are to improve maternal, neonatal and child health and to reduce vulnerability to communicable diseases and common ailments. Our Health program is a combination of preventive, curative, rehabilitative and promotional health services.

DUS is implementing the Essential Health Service Delivery program with its own fund as well as financial support by Bangladesh NGO Foundation and the Netherland’s Government.

Currently DUS is operating three health clinics.

Essential Health Service Clinic: Nizum Dwip is an isolated island from Hatiya mainland. This is located on the southern part of the Noakhali District and approximately 10,000 families live here. Most of the families are living below subsistence level who are deprived from minimum services especially health services. DUS has established Nizum Dwip Health Clinic in 2008 with the financial support of Bangladesh NGO Foundation with the view to increasing access to quality maternal, newborn and child health services to rural populations. The intervention employs Community Health Resources like paramedic, Shasthya Shebika, Newborn Health Worker and Community Skilled Birth Attendant to provide basic primary healthcare at the community level, to work with village health committees to motivate behavior change by addressing issues of pregnancy, newborn and child health, and also to facilitate access to obstetric and newborn care at public and private facilities. Currently the program is promoting preventive and curative maternal, neonatal and child care practices, adolescent personal healthcare, family planning issues, basic health care, different sexual diseases through targeted household visits and community mobilization, resulting in a sharp rise in pregnancy identification, antenatal care, access to skilled birth attendants during delivery, safely menstrual practices, nutritional food habit, access birth-control services etc. In an average, 200 people are getting health related services from the clinic in a week. Besides these services, DUS also provides primary medicine in a cheap and reasonable price with the own revolving fund.

Static Clinic & Satellite Clinic: DUS is implementing this health program in the area of kaladurbazar and Bhumihinbazar under Nangolia and Nalerchar in the Hatiya Island. DUS has established two static and six satellite clinic in the respective area with the financial support of the Netherland Government under the “Char Development & Settlement Project”. The reality is, there are no organized family planning and health services from either government or NGOs in these areas, although some village doctors and medicine sellers are providing health services to the char dwellers. But, the facility is not sufficient for them. As there is no adequate service, People are bound to go to the mainland, which is time consuming and expensive also, and sometime the local people don’t get any services as the services are expensive for them.

It could be mentioned that one paramedic, three Health & Family Planning Workers (HFPW) along with 15 Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) are responsible for each clinic. The paramedic attends the patients three days in a week through a fixed schedule of static clinic and other three days conduct mobile or satellite clinic to cover the whole lot of beneficiaries and provide them the necessary services. These services cover general health & nutrition, mother & child health care, immunization, pregnancy related care, safe delivery, basic curative services and family planning for the targeted people of DUS command area. The program also distributes the ORS, contraceptive, de-worming, micro-nutrient etc.

WATSAN Project: Building on its long experience of providing water and sanitation services to communities, DUS had began its Water and Sanitation program with the financial and technical support of the Netherlands Government. The program is being implemented in Nangolia Char and Nalerchar under Hatiya Upazilla. DUS’s goal is to provide sustainable and integrated WATSAN services in the rural areas and break the contamination cycle of unhealthy latrines, contaminated water and unsafe hygiene practices, as well as ensure sustainability and scaling-up of WATSAN services. The program aims to ensure access to sanitation services for four thousand six hundred & five household and safe water services with 250 HHs. It is also extending DTW and hygiene education for around 20,000 people of the respective intervention areas of DUS.

The strategy of the program is to establish the Tubewell User Group (TUG), made up of 15-20 households – with representation from all stakeholder groups. The TUG meets to assess existing water and sanitation situation of the entire community and identify issues that need urgent action. They select sites for community water sources, collect necessary finance and monitor usage and maintenance of latrines. Two key members from each group (both are female) is provided leadership training at a DUS facility in order to strengthen the capacity of TUGs. Approximately 40 female have received their training till now and another 500 female will be trained by DUS.

Components of the water & hygiene programs are: DUS undertake various activities, including development of a water safety plan, DTW site & user group selection, DTW site finalize and submit DPHE, collection of monetary contribution and deposition, installation of deep tube well to provide communities with access to safe water.

Each and every household of the project area is going to get one latrine. Thus DUS has built 400 nos. latrines and around 4,200 latrines will be built in the project period. The sanitary latrine is produced, supplied and installed by DPHE. DUS also raise awareness on sanitation issues, which creates community demand for using sanitary latrines.

Legal and Human Rights

DUS with its 30 years of experience had learnt that most of the settlers have inadequate knowledge about their fundamental rights especially about land rights, registration & mutation process, family laws like marriage law & registration. The new settlers at charland live in a very vulnerable condition as they do not get access to land ownership. Besides, violence against women and children are regular scenario in the project intervention area. For that reason DUS addresses women rights issues within the family and society through the Char Development & Settlement Project.

DUS is implementing this project in Hatiya Upaziala with the financial support of GoB and Netherlands Government. The objective of the program is to inform the members and community about several critical laws, human rights issues through training and awareness raising activities. According to the program plan, DUS is responsible for organizing and conducting training and awareness session to the group members, UP chairman, elites regarding Human rights and different laws for marriage. The program also observed the important days related to rights like human rights day, women day, children day etc.

The program is also aimed to get secure land titles for the dwellers. DUS is mandated to plot to plot survey to identify parcels of land and their current occupiers for registration of title which is carried out by the land staff of the local administration. DUS also support to improve the land record system into computerized of records so that the records less vulnerable to improper alteration and more accessible to the public.

Education

Non-Formal Education: DUS has the experience of working on Non-Formal Education (NFE) since early nineties offering opportunities for basic education of children from ultra poor families unable of the charland to get enrolled in formal primary schools, or dropouts before completing primary cycle due to poverty and/or social-structural constraints and thus remain deprived of their basic right. In this program, DUS is operating 10 nos. schools in the char land areas comprised with 30 nos. learners in each school.

The project was initiated to enhancing the life options of the children and adolescents of the char land to give them access and rights to education, protection and development and participation. Under the project the activities there is implementing Establishment of Learning Centers, Learner selection, Teacher and Supervisor Recruitment, Teacher and supervisors’ Training, Center Management Committee (CMC) formation and activities, Livelihood Skills Education Program, Linkages with livelihood skills education providing agencies, Livelihood skills training through Advocacy, Social Mobilization and Communication for behavioral change, Capacity Building and Experience Sharing, Program Management and Monitoring, Learner’s Selection for Quality Basic Education etc.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Education Program: Now a day, ICT is one of the important subjects of the development sector. Besides the university level education, students need to know the knowledge of ICT. The majority of beneficiaries of DUS are in the char land area and there is no opportunity to learn this ICT. For this reason DUS has provided this education to the students of the char land areas, so that they would be able to pursue a professional career immediately after graduation. DUS has designed the program with the aim to familiarize students with the usage of computers and related accessories. This program had been initiated from 2001. There are two training centers of DUS, one is in Hatiya and another is in Maizdee of Noakhali District. The Centers are equiped with computers, printer, scanner and internet. Both male and female facilitators are conducting the training sessions. DUS is implementing this program with its own fund.

Agriculture and Value Chain

Agriculture (field and homestead crops) is the main source of livelihoods for char dwellers. DUS has found from its long experience to work with the char-dwellers that, child nutrition is in a dire state, with very visible child under-weight and stunting. Most of the men of household leave the area for seasonal work and the women have to bear the responsibility to arrange food for the families. Sometimes, these women resorts homestead agriculture and/or vegetable gardening for their survival although their knowledge of farming is very limited. For this reason, the program is designed to overcome the challenges and develop & expand crop or non-crop products.

DUS is implementing this program aimed to developing field crops especially focused on fruits and vegetables and enable farmers to make better use of land resources and the program is being implemented with the assistance of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE). In this program period, DUS will promote fruits and timber trees to operating nurseries and qualitative & climate resilient seeds and trees for homestead gardening to the group members of DUS. There are two Agriculture Experts, who are implementing the program at Chanondi and Nanguliar char of Hatiya under Noakhali district. The program also included ToT for agriculture coordinator, farmer’s orientation & training on the basis of demand and opportunities to introduce new technologies and Training on Nursery development.

The program is also included demonstration on high value crop. DUS is providing climate resilient seeds, plants, fertilizer, insecticides, signboard, new technology for farming and the demonstrating the block in the two respective program areas. Training on high value chain will be also conducted for the farmers.

There are field days and motivational tour in this program activity. To disseminate the result of successful demonstration, the field days will be observance and the local visit will be conducted to exchange the farmer’s experience. There is also study on homestead agriculture and value chain. The study will identify the key production constraints and potentialities for the program intervention including adaptable new crops and technologies.

Value Chain: DUS is also implementing the technique and idea of Value Chain (demand & supply chain) so that the growers can have a linkage with the market and they grow the commodities according to the demand of the market and supply them with a better price. In this regard, DUS is trying to bring out the primary growers from the clutch of the middlemen in the market.

 

Community Radio Program

The first community radio station of Hatiya Island of Bangladesh is the Community Radio Sagor Dwip is going on-air from Hatiya Upazila. Community Radio Sagor Dwip will continuously broadcast programs on diversified resources of the Bay of Bengal and in protecting lives and livelihood of small fishermen and the small islanders and also to promote other areas of life & livelihood.

Now the poor and marginalized community people of Hatiya Upazila are having direct access to discuss their own issues through Community Radio Sagor Dwip by having a radio at their doorsteps. Now the poor community people will have scope to reflect on their problems and prospects in their local dialect. Community Radio Sagor Dwip will now contribute in poverty reduction of the people around its community and audience area by ensuring their access to social, economic, cultural and political information and their participation in operating communication outlets.

Potentials of Community Radio in Bangladesh: Community Radio has created scope for the poor and marginalized community to raise their own voice; it becomes the voice for the voiceless. This neo-media outlets opened scope to establish their rights of Information and communication in social, political, cultural and environmental arena, Scope widened for poverty reduction and sustainable development because of the rights to raise voice of the community and accessibility to knowledge and information, Scope opened for exchange of dialogue between local elected representatives, government and NGO professionals for the sake of establishing good governance, establishment of direct linkage between the community and the main sectors reflected in MDGs and 6th 5-year plan. Scopes are also created for Social debate, inclusion and preservation of cultural diversity by ensuring the inclusion of the marginalized community and Community Radio is now able to play more active role in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) due to establishment of effective linkage between the govt. departments and local/rural community.

Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) is promoting the advocacy with the government in relations to community radio with other organizations since its emergence from 2000. BNNRC has been addressing the community radio and community TV access issue for over a decade, helping to bridge the information gap of rural Bangladesh with the support from Free Press Unlimited.

Research and Documentation

DUS has a strong Research and Documentation Cell to conduct quality research in diverse areas of human and social development sectors, especially covering education, health, livelihood development, environment, human rights and social justice. The R&D cell works as a professional support services unit to fulfill the growing demand for generation and systematic analysis of information in connection with the increasing involvement of DUS in its development activities. In this way it engages in survey and research activities addressing the in-house needs of the organization for exploring and examining the feasible approaches for development, planning, designing, piloting, assessing, and improving the implementation and performance of a wide range of projects, and also determining the best practices and models of socio-economic interventions.

DUS is implementing a research based project named Hatiya Dwip Livelihood Survey (HDLS) project with the financial and technical support of CSEAS Kyoto University of Japan. The project is being implemented in 4 villages of Hatiya Dwip e.g. Rajerhawla, Charlotia, Aladigram and Shunnorchar.

The objective of the project is to examine the empirical evidence on the natura of present and possible climate-change-induced health, migration challenges and vulnerabilities of the coastal people of Bangladesh with emphasis on women, children as well as to understand their adaptive capacity to climate threats.

This is a questionnaire based survey which is conducting by 2 field officers who are reportable to the Research and Documentation Coordinator. The Coordinator is overall responsible for data analysis, data entry, data processing, report writing, prepare case study regarding history, culture and life of Hatiya etc.

The aims of the study include the following:

  • To compile evidence on the impacts of climate change and disasters on health and migration in the coastal areas of Bangladesh
  • Understand people’s especially women and children’s vulnerability, their adaptive capacity and how government programs and policy influence can improve their ability to cope with future climate change
  • Identifying likely patterns of health vulnerabilities, their impulses and the likely number of people who will be vulnerable to climate change induced health challenges
  • Identifying likely patterns of migration, their impulses and the likely number of people who will be vulnerable to climate change induced migration
  • Assessing human insecurities caused by climate-change induced migration including impacts on livelihoods and income, loss of social capital, impact on traditional coping mechanisms, impacts on already marginalized groups
  • Identifying adaptation strategies and policies including options for non-migration
  • To produce recommendations for further research on the availability and appropriateness of data, gaps in knowledge and relevant policy gaps relating to health, migration and climate change
  • Exploring governance and institutional approaches that can support strategies to anticipate, prevent and where necessary, manage climate-change induced health and migration challenges

DUS is implementing the project to assess the present status, challenges and coping mechanism of the local people, to have a clear understanding of the present and potential vulnerabilities as well as way forward to address them adequately. As such, the findings of the study can greatly help in policy advocacy as well as design and undertake appropriate project interventions.

Documentation: Documentation is also an important strength of DUS, as it documents all its activities and also publishes them in course of time. Annual report of DUS is also a good document to know about the activities and results, as DUS is mandated to publish results of all of its activities.

 

Capacity Development

DUS believes that capacity development & training is a key element of the development approach, which focuses on people and their participation. Training has been introduced as an essential element of DUS’s intervention strategy.

DUS conducts need based training programs, prepares module and training curriculum. The training programs generally uses flip chart, posters, handouts, cards & charts, audio cassettes, video cassettes, original model, curriculum, modules, photographs etc. DUS has already developed a training and communication Unit, which is completely equipped with all possible physical and human resources. DUS is organizing different type of training since last two decades.

DUS has organized different type of training for its staffs and as well as beneficiaries. DUS always prepare its yearly training plan, which incorporates basic skill development training for staffs, MIS, ToT general, Branch management and Financial management etc.

DUS conducts its skill development training through identification of people who need skill training. This is done by conducting survey to identify marketable skills, developing modules of livelihood skills program, conducting training to the selected people, select graduates of the skill program to receive capital, linking other graduates to employment or credit program, following up the graduates to see whether they are able to achieve sustainable livelihood. The skills training programs include tree nursery management, sustainable agriculture, poultry and cattle rearing etc.

Leadership development training is a very important intervention of DUS. Leadership development training is intended for the group members under different project interventions. The training programs focus financial management of community fund, conflict management, and bottom-up planning for sustainable rural livelihoods. Through this training, the stakeholders are helped to understand WatSan, maternal and child health, personal hygiene, safe drinking water, health and nutrition education, gender and development, livelihood and food security development and other issues for improving their knowledge, attitude and skills.

Training on different courses offered them to choose income sources. Some were found utilizing the skills to meet their family needs, and so to speak, earn by sales. Instead of the indispensable constraints relating to management of time, staff and stakeholder, income level of the target people was found rising; school going habit among the children of the target people have risen; opportunities for alternative works increased; right based issues for the women in the family and society discussed and decided; and a kind of behavioral change in maintaining their personal and environmental hygiene was identified.

DUS has organized Human Development Training in each year from its inception. The training program is organized for the members who are not aware about Gender discrimination and women rights in the family or society. The Human Development Training Programs includes Gender Equity & equality and Development. Child & Women Rights and Women Empowerment is also an important intervention of DUS’s capacity development program.

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