Assistance for Sustainable Development (ASD) project has been contributing much to change the socio-economic conditions of the project beneficiaries living in different chars of three upazilas of Gaibandha district for few years last, reports BSS.
Office sources said due to geographical location every year, the char dwellers of Gaibandha Sadar, Sundarganj and Fulchhari upazilas faced devastating floods, cold wave, river erosion and other natural calamities creating untold sufferings to them and their sorrows know no bounds during the disasters.
To mitigate their sufferings and to bring the char dwellers of the upazilas under the main stream of development, Friendship, an international leading none government voluntary organization took various projects including ASD-one.
Project incharge Dibakor Biswas said a total of 270 hard to reach char dwellers of the upazilas have been brought under the project launched in 2017.
The objective of the project funded by Friendship Luxemburg is to change the socio-economic condition of the project beneficiaries through imparting them in income generating activities like poultry farming, cow and goat rearing, vegetable cultivation on the yard of the houses so that they could be self-reliant economically, he also said.
Not only that, the project beneficiaries are being made aware on various social issues like early or child marriage, poly gamy, domestic violence, eve teasing, birth registration at the initiative of the project, he added.
Apart from it, all the project beneficiaries are being made aware on contemporary issue Corona virus, and early flood preparedness to check the spread of Corona virus and to reduce the loss of lives and properties during the disaster, he further added.
The social issues were being discussed the Uthan Boithak being held on the yards of the project beneficiaries regularly, he termed.
After taking support and training from the project, many of the beneficiaries have already involved in income generating activities and became self-dependent and the rest are on pipeline to be self-reliant gradually.
Mst. Beily Begum, a project beneficiary living at Kabilpur Char of the district, said they had got vegetable seed and sheep from the project free of cost.
Through farming the various vegetable in latest agro technologies and rearing the sheep in modern technologies she was able to earn economic profit and then became self-dependent.
She also expressed her gratefulness to the officials of the project and thanked them for launching the project for them with proving them support and livelihood training.
Abdul Hai, chairman of Mollarchar union parishad under Sadar upazila, said the char people are being benefited from the project as they have learned many things including social issues and crop farming through using modern methods and latest agri technologies from the project.
The project officials are also raising awareness about corona and suggesting the project beneficiaries to maintain social distancing, wear masks, wash hands with soaps and follow health guidelines to contain corona, the chairman added.
District coordinator of Friendship Abdus Salam said the organization had been working for the char dwellers of Gaibandha and Kurigram district since 2010 aimed at pushing forward the under privileged and backward hard to reach char people towards desired development.
A number of projects are being implemented by the organization to ensure education, health, good governance to the char people of the district, he concluded.
