MANAGEMENT
EXISTING
PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES
AWARENESS RAISING
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
PROJECT
HYSAWA (HYGIENE, SANITATION
AND WATER SUPPLY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME)
FAMILY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT FOR DESTITUTE AND DISPLACED FAMILIES LIVING
IN DIFFERENT CAMPS OF 6 CITIES
SPECIAL VILLAGE SANITATION PROJECT
TRAINING, SEMINAR AND STUDY TOUR
ENTENDED
MICRO-FINANCE PROJECT OF POOR WOMEN OF SAYEDPUR CAMPS IN NILPHAMARI DISTRICT
Back
ground of the project
This project was extended on the basis of experience gained from the last
year’s project with the financial assistance of OBAT Helpers Inc.,
USA. The implementation period was March 2008 to February 2009. The project
attempted to focus on camp dwellers in Syedpur town in northern part of
the country where concentration of stranded Pakistani people is very high.
They are poor and rootless and no place to live at their own. The vast majority
of women of the dwellers are hard core poor and they are struggling for
survival. Thus, income generation activities could help the distress women
who may create positive impact on their life style by raising social awareness
and providing small scale loan to them for poverty reduction. These activities
aimed at covering wide range of activities like income generation activities,
improving health and nutrition, water and sanitation, environment, child
rights and human rights etc.
1. Objective of the project
The main objective of the project was improving the quality of life of the women of the camps. The project has set some specific goal to bring target women under income generation activities. These are
a) Organizing poor women and build-up social awareness, orientation on micro-credit operation, group savings and utilization of fund for poverty reduction;
b) Providing skill development training on income generation activities; and
c) Creating awareness on health, hygiene so that they can receive govt. health services for themselves and the under age children.
2. Coverage of the project
There are 20 camps in Syedpur with 4255 families and 20,000 population. The project has so far covered 1075 families in 14 camps. This means that 74% families in rest of the camps still remains out of the project in spite of their eligibility.
3. Organizational development
The beneficiaries organized themselves into functional groups, elected their own leaders to manage the groups. They hold weekly meetings and discuss their problems also with weekly savings. The members have developed habit of own savings
4. Planned activities and overall achievement
In the project document a work plan was included showing the planned activities of the project. It is important to see the achievement of the planned activities
Table-9
Sl.
no |
Activities |
Targets |
Achievement |
%
Achievement |
1 |
Bench
mark survey of the camps and assess the socio economic condition |
7
camps |
09 |
128 |
2 |
Group
formation for income generation |
20
groups |
47 |
235 |
3 |
Membership
enrolment |
600
members |
1466 |
244 |
4 |
Training
of Project In charge and Project Organizer |
02(one) |
5 |
250 |
5 |
Briefing
of group members on income generation activities |
600
women |
1466 |
250 |
6 |
Start
of group savings of the group members as soon as beneficiaries are
enrolled |
600 |
1466 |
250 |
7 |
Provide
loan to potential members |
400
women |
1271 |
318 |
8 |
Organize
weekly group meetings and create awareness on health, education and
water sanitation |
960
meetings |
2256
meetings |
235 |
9 |
Collection of weekly credit installment from the members | 600
women |
1271 |
212 |
10 |
Loan provide to new members | 600
women |
671 |
112 |
The
table shows that achievement was 100% to 318% against the specific planned
activities. This indicates that the project was effectively implemented.
5. Disbursement of project loan among the members
In the project there was target of 400 members to be provided with loan. The loan giving ceremony was started in the month April 2008. Total project fund for loan was Tk. 4,000,000. The loan giving activities continued throughout the project period. Out of total loan distributed among the beneficiaries Tk. 3,154,005 was collected and rest amount was outstanding in the field. The amount collected revolved among the beneficiaries enrolled as new members in gradual process. The rate of loan repayment by the members is 100%.
In the following camps income generation activities were carried out. The table shows the number of saving members and loan provided to the members for income generation activities:
Table
- 10
Savings members and Members received loan
Sl.
no |
Name
of Camp |
No
of Saving members |
No
of members received loan
|
1 |
Islambagh |
35 |
29 |
2 |
Rasulpur |
36 |
27 |
3 |
Munshipara |
105 |
97 |
4 |
Hatikhana |
264 |
250 |
5 |
Out
house |
35 |
30 |
6 |
Mistrypara |
120 |
108 |
7 |
Golahat |
164 |
147 |
8 |
Cinema
Hall Camp |
105 |
101 |
9 |
Golahat-1 |
165 |
132 |
10 |
Durgamill |
35 |
29 |
11 |
Bashbari |
85 |
64 |
- | Total |
1149 |
1014 |
Table - 11
The members utilize their loan in the following trades and business
Sl.
no |
Name
of Trade & Business |
No
of members |
%members
involved in the business |
1 |
Rickshaw
/ Rickshaw Van Pulling and Cart |
263 |
26 |
2 |
Food
Processing |
09 |
01 |
3 |
Small
Trade |
694 |
68 |
4 |
Small
Engineering & Manufacturing |
36 |
3.55 |
5 |
Hotel
business |
12 |
1.18 |
- |
Total |
1014 |
- |
It is found that small business was
the most important activities followed by Rickshaw and Rickshaw van pulling
from which they are economically benefited.
6. Repayment Trend
It is found that repayment of loan was 100% in all cases till to-date. There has been a very good trend set by the members of the groups particularly in repayment of loan.
7. Creation of awareness of the beneficiaries
Creation of awareness of the beneficiaries (women members) was one of the objectives of the project. An attempt is being made to see how far the awareness was created among the beneficiaries on basic health, nutrition, water, sanitation hygiene and education. The level of knowledge of the members in new camps was assessed. The project staff during their field visits attends the group meetings and raises awareness of the members on health nutrition hygiene sanitation and education etc. The group members send their children to schools obtain health service from services providers or themselves and their children practice hygiene behaviors use sanitation and drink safe water at family levels. The level of existing knowledge and members acquiring knowledge on different indicators are shown in the following table:
Table - 12
Level of knowledge of group members on selected indicators
Sl.
no |
Variables |
%
of members having knowledge before the project (as per BLS)* |
%
of members acquired knowledge through project organizer after the
project |
1 |
Immunization
of children |
93 |
07 |
2 |
Nutritional
blindness prevention(nutrient vegetables) |
30 |
70 |
3 |
Diarrhoeal
diseases |
80 |
20 |
4 |
Taking
iodated salt to remove iodine deficiency |
8 |
92 |
5 |
Preparation
of oral saline |
12 |
88 |
6 |
Use
of sanitary latrines |
15 |
85 |
7 |
Washing
of hands with soap/ash before and after defecation |
20 |
80 |
8 |
Washing
of hand with soap before eating |
85 |
15 |
9 |
Use
pf sandals while using latrines |
10 |
90 |
10 |
Drinking
safe water |
99 |
01 |
11 |
Prohibition
of child marriage |
30 |
70 |
12 |
Registration
of birth |
none |
100 |
13 |
Sending children of 6+ to school(which is free) | 35 |
65 |
It is found that majority of members had knowledge about immunization of children diarrhoeal diseases, washing hands with soap before eating and drinking water before the project was undertaken. But overwhelming majority of the members acquired knowledge on nutritional blindness prevention, taking iodated salt, preparation of ORS, use of sanitary latrines, washing of hands with soap before and after defecation, use of sandals while using latrines, prohibition of child marriage, birth registration and sending their children (6+) to schools through project organizer after the implementation of project. It appears that a good deal of awareness has been created among the members through weekly meetings of the women groups after the project was implemented. This is undoubtedly a great achievement. It was also observed after discussions in focus groups that most of the members had been practicing washing hand with soap before eating, using sandals while using latrines, maintaining cleanliness at home, drinking safe water and sending children to schools.
The project management staff both at the HQ and field level thought that
such a project could not produce any tangible impact within a short duration
of the project rather it should continue for some more times to produce
desired result. The response of the beneficiaries was highly positive and
spontaneous.
8. Lessons learnt
The lessons (1) learnt from the experience of implementation of the project
may be summarized as follows: