The Char Development Programme

LIVING on the

EDGE

PHOTO CREDITS:

RDRS staff

DESIGN:

SW Multimedia Ltd., Dhaka

PRINTING:

Shimanta Printing & Publishing Co., Dhaka

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The Char Development Programme is run by RDRS Bangladesh on the chars(sandbar islands) and adjacent mainland areas along the Brahmaputra River innorth-west Bangladesh. It began in 1988 to assist and improve the quality oflife of the tenant-farmer communities in this environmentally-vulnerable area.

About RDRSThe Coochbihar Refugee Service (CBRS), which assisted thousands of people fleeingfrom war ravaged Rangpur-Dinajpur region of Bangladesh to adjoining Coochbihar inIndia during the war of liberation in 1971, is the forerunner of RDRS. After the warended, RDRS was formally established in 1972 as the Bangladesh Field Programmeof Lutheran World Federation/Department for World Service (LWF/DWS), Geneva toprovide relief, rehabilitation and development assistance to the poor. Later in 1997RDRS was transformed into a national NGO with an autonomous Board of Trusteesand it became an Associated Programme of LWF/DWS.

Since its inception in 1972, RDRS has been a leader in integrated developmentactivities in Bangladesh. At present, it offers comprehensive development supportincluding microfinance to the poor, especially women, across ten Districts of thenorth-west and north-east regions in Bangladesh.

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Working area 13,164 sq kmsPopulation across the working area 10.4 mNos. of:� Districts 10� Upazilas (sub-districts) 50 � Unions 355Nos. involved in RDRS programmes:� Programme participants 1.9 million� Federations 260� Groups 20,292� Participant households 337,661� Other clients 150,000Nos. 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

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A Vulnerable Place

Of all the RDRS working areas, Kurigram District in the north-west is mostaffected by flooding and erosion; it is here the Brahmaputra River and itstributaries continually create and destroy low-lying and infertile islands andriverbanks as they criss-cross the flat, sandy plain. The marginalised anddispossessed people who live here do so only at the mercy of unstoppableforces of nature. On the chars, physical disaster as a way-of-live is as certainas the social and economic poverty of a community long cut-off from themainstream of Bangladesh society.

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Entering the Mainstream

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.

... even if theirhomes are

built on sand,the lives of

the chardwellers are

based on solidfoundations.

‘

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Goals for the Chars

Through the CDP, RDRS aims to widen and improve access for all to basicservices and so to reduce the vulnerability of char dwellers to both natural disasterand social, political and economic exclusion. We believe that support forlivelihood and institutional development will lead to self-empowerment andadvancement for individuals, families and communities. Specifically, CDP actionsare 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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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 widenearning opportunities; the training courses were appropriate both for thosewho stay on the chars (mainly women) and those who migrate to themainland for seasonal on- and off-farm employment (mainly men). Suchskills are particularly important to those families who lose their lands toriver erosion. The participants not only receive training but, through boththeir Groups and Federations, have access to the financial resources ofRDRS' 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 flood-

engendered deaths, loss of their land and damage to their homes and

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P r o g r a m m e A c t i v i t i e s

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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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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 most-

vulnerable 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 L i ve l i hoods Programme (CLP)

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For Shahara Begum, it remains a miracle how she found a routeout of poverty. Until a few years ago, she was wretchedly poor,living on less than US$ 1 a day - the United Nations extremepoverty yardstick. Life was hard as tenant farmers onManushmara Char. But it became even harder when the family'sland was washed away by the mighty Brahmaputra River, leavingthem destitute and desperate. In those dark days, they even hadto resort to forcing Shahara's eldest daughter unwillingly into anearly marriage so that at least she would be fed.

But that was a long-time ago, before this enterprising womanjoined a CDP Group. With her first loan of 2,000 Tk, she boughta calf and has never looked back. Investing the profits from herfour loans into cows, the 27-year-old has been able to buy landand build a house for her family. She even has a tubewell andpucca latrine, both rare sights on Manushmara, but brightbeacons for the future of Shahara Begum, her family and theircommunity.

MovingForward

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RDRS BangladeshHouse-43, Road-10, Sector-6Uttara Model Town, Dhaka-1230BangladeshTel: +8802-8954384-6Fax: +8802-8954391Email: rdrs@bangla.netWebsite: www.rdrsbangla.net

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