Integrated Services for Children & Mothers (ISDCM)

Women members are engaged in weaving bamboo mats

2. Existing Programmes

2.1. Experimental project transformed into regular programming

ISDCM has been implementing many activities on awareness creation of the community. The awareness creation activities cover wide range of subjects like family planning, Health & Nutrition, Water & Sanitation, Environment, Child Rights, Human Rights, and Family Laws etc. These activities were initially carried out in Dhamrai Upazila of Dhaka District district. Nineteen hundred families were covered within the purview of the awareness raising activities. Through such an experiment 310 functional groups were formed in 2004. ISDCM left these groups to flourish at their own initiatives. The objective of this experiment was to see whether these groups could sustain with the training given on development of their skills and leadership. Their activities were monitored for future action. Subsequently ISDCM has undertaken a Micro-finance project in Dhamrai Upazila on the initiatives of the poor women who demonstrated their interest to be covered under the formal institutional framework of ISDCM.

2.2. Community Development Project

ISDCM started Community Development project in Singra Upazila of Natore district in the year 2000. The project covers wide range of activities like i) development of Organizations for the rural poor women ii) build up awareness on education, health nutrition, water sanitation child rights iii) accumulation of thrift deposits, iv) income generation activities through micro-credit and vi) leadership development of poor women.

Based on the experiences gained in Singra Upazila for the last couple of years, the similar project has been expanded in 5 other areas like Kaliganj (Northern part) of Singra Upazila, Bagatipara Upazila, Natore Sadar of Natore district, Dhamrai Upazila of Dhaka district and Manikganj Sadar of Manikganj District.

Bagatipara Upazila
The ISDCM has established its new Branch Offices at Bagatipara Upazila of Natore district during the reporting period and started functioning with micro-credit activities. The Upazila is having population of 355,000 consisting of 6 unions and 01 Pourashava with 142 villages. The people of the Upazila have been living largely on agricultural activities mainly on Sugar cultivation. The Upazila is characterized by poor economic condition, high level of illiteracy, and unemployment situation. There is no significant initiative from any corner to bring under privileged people into development process. Before micro-credit project a base line survey was conducted to assess the situation of the area. The formation of group members was done carefully and potential women were enrolled as member. ISDCM has given priority to the women who are poor and have no other opportunity of getting credit for improvement of socio-economic condition. The survey reflected that the human resources like women are entirely under utilized and kept themselves engaged in the house hold activities. Thus micro-credit project might change the complexion of the socio-economic condition of the people and increase women empowerment through income generation activities.

Kaliganj Branch
The Kaliganj Branch Office situated in Kushumbi union and established in the year 2004 under Singra Upazila. The Kaliganj is far away from Singra catchment area and difficult to operate from Singra as such it became necessary to establish a office at Kaliganj. The micro-credit was undertaken considering the socio-economic condition of the people of the area. Kaliganj is low lying and flood prone area. Beside the administrative area of Kaliganj micro-credit operation area has also included some parts of Nandigram Upazila of Bogra Raninagar and Atrai Upazila of Naogaon district.

Sadar Branch, Natore
Sadar Branch office has been established in the year 2005 and was brought into operation during the month July 2005. The office is situated in the heart of the town. At the beginning income generation activities started with 6 villages of 3 unions and gradually expanded the activities in the other villages. During 2005, one more Branch office has been established in Sadar Upazila of Manikganj district. ISDCM has laid priority to expand its micro-finance activities to empower the poor women.

Dhamrai Branch office:
Dhamrai Branch has been established in 2005. It is one of the biggest Upazila of Dhaka district and close to Metropolitan City. Dhamrai is historically famous and has long tradition of rich culture and heritage and has reputation of co-existence of different communities. The Upazila is densely populated and 50% of population is female who are lagging behind in all respects and characterized by under utilization of women labor. In the back drop of this situation, ISDCM has initiated its micro-finance project activities for rural women. ISDCM initially started its micro-finance activities in 19 villages of 3 unions. During the period of Annual Report 27 groups were formed, total # members in each group varies from 15-30. The initial investment for credit program was Tk.7,09,900. Total amount of loan so far distributed Tk.9,04,000 and realization rate was 100% during the reporting period.

Micro-Credit Operation
The objective of micro-finance activities was to empower the poowr women through creation of social awareness and development of their own organization for poverty reduction. During the period of Report ISDCM has expanded its project area and activities. In Singra Upazila the growth of the organization was good and number of Loanee members increased to 1166.

Kaliganj Branch office was established in early 2004 and on completion of survey the activities were started in 2 unions covering 12 villages. ISDCM now working with 33 groups and total members was 929 who received loan for income generation activities.

ISDCM begun its operational activities only in 5 villages of Sadar Union of Bagatipara Upazila in the year 2004 and has so far covered 26 villages of 3 unions. The group members were selected carefully and potential women enrolled as members for micro-finance operation. It has given priority to the women who are poor and have no other scope of getting loan for improvement of their socio-economic condition.

Weekly Meetings
Weekly meeting is an important activity of the project and it has been institutionalized. This is an essential part for growth of any such Organization. The meetings are held regularly. Each Field Worker has been given responsibility to work with 18-20 groups. The groups maintained minutes of the meetings. This is mandatory for themselves to attend regular meetings. The following issues were discussed in the meetings:

Group Savings;
Credit requirements;
Repayment of credit;
Attendance in group meetings;
Income-generation activities;
Health: EPI, Nutritional Blindness Prevention(NBP); diarrhea Diseases, Maternal and Mortality of pregnant mothers; Family Planning and Safe-Motherhood etc.;
Nutrition: Vegetables like all-star, cache shack, Misty kumara and other seasonal vegetables, prefer small and low cost fish in the daily life;
Education: Enroll 6+ age group children in the primary school and send them regularly;
Water and Sanitation: Drink safe water, use tube-well water for drinking washing and all other purposes, use hygienic latrines, wash hands with soap or ashes before eating and after defecation etc.;
Protect Child Rights: Prevent worst form of child Labor, Child trafficking

Table-1: Group Meetings

Sl. #	Name of Branch	No. of groups	Weekly group meeting Targeted	Achievement	Average attendance (%)
1	Natore Sadar	33	2376	2376	100
2	Singra	60	4320	4320	100
3	Kaliganj	32	2304	2304	100
4	Tamaltala	33	2376	2376	100
5	Dhamrai	27	756	756	100

Group Savings: The members are always encouraged for group savings. This is prerequisite for membership to the groups. There is a provision of withdrawal of members saving from their own accumulation of fund which helped them meet emergency need. The group members receive dividends annually out of their income. The members deposited the savings weekly to their credit in the organizations account. The amount savings are varies from Tk.15-20. For each member a pass book is being given to maintain record of the account. The member reserved the right to withdraw her savings on demand. This program has given them opportunity to take lead role in the family. In all the Branch Offices the growth of members has largely increased over the last year.

Table-2: Accumulation of Savings of group members
from July 2004 to December 2005

Sl No.	Branch Name	Opening balance	Savings: Jul’04 to Dec’ 05	Withdrawal & return	Closing Balance		Admi- ssion	Cancel
Sl No.	Branch Name	Opening balance	Savings: Jul’04 to Dec’ 05	Withdrawal & return	Mem-ber	Amount	Admi- ssion	Cancel
1	Natore Sadar	0	187,639	5,410	608	182,229	621	13
2	Singra	1,012,423	2,357,876	1,910,021	1,255	1,460,278	689	403
3	Kaliganj	36,385	668,841	322,255	747	382,971	703	113
4	Tamaltala	0	404323	132,789	629	271,534	705	76
5	Dhamrai	0	1,58,995	8,260	235	9,04,000	496	11

Branch Offices	Saving’s of 2005	Closing Balance 2005
Natore Sadar	187,639	182,229
Singra	2,357,876	1,460,278
Kaliganj	668,841	382,971
Tamaltala	404323	271,534
Dhamrai	1,58,995	9,04,000

Chart-1