Integrated Services for Children & Mothers (ISDCM)

FAMILY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT FOR DESTITUTE AND DISPLACED FAMILIES LIVING IN DIFFERENT CAMPS OF 6 CITIES

This project was undertaken by ISDCM with the financial assistance of OBAT Helpers Inc., USA. Its implementation period was April 2008 to March 2009.

Project Background
Bangladesh is a country with a population of approximately 135 million. The country has 6 (six) divisions and 64 districts. 51% of the total population is male and 49% is female. Country’s literacy level is 40%. In recent times Bangladesh has come to be known as a disaster-prone area. Recently she has fallen under Tsunami threat.

They are almost three lacs rootless and helpless people living in 13 different Cities of Bangladesh without any guarantee for permanent settlement anywhere. They have no place to migrate on their own choice. They are human beings in distress. The plight of the people who were born in these camps 30 years ago and as well as those who were forced to the camp life at that time is indescribable. People of both the camp generations have identity crisis and they cannot lay any claim to any place as their own. Naturally such people live in great uncertainty and they are in bad shape. They have to depend on the mercy of the people outside the camp. They have been passing their days in extreme inhuman conditions. There has been high level of poverty among these people characterized by low level of literacy, poor health, nutrition, education and depressing environmental and sanitation conditions.

2. Objectives

The overall objective of the project is to convert this population from liability to assets and to improve the quality of their life;
To provide Training, Education and self empowerment as a road map to reach the objective;
To create awareness and provide health services, Nutrition, Education, Hygiene, Water supply and Sanitation; and
Provide financial assistance to extremely distressed families of the camps, medical treatment and education to the children and adult.

3. Implementation Frame work of the project

The Project was implemented by ISDCM based in Dhaka. The project activities covered 6 major cities of Bangladesh which were Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rangpur, Mymensingh and Syedpur. The duration of the project was 1 year. For this project one Project Coordinator was appointed who was based in Dhaka. He was supported by 5 Project Supervisors at the field level. Beside this one Project Accountant was also engaged for keeping of accounts. During implementation period ISDCM received all sorts cooperation from the local administration as well as local community leaders for effective implementation of the project.

4. Family Development Project had following components like financial assistance, education, health, training etc.

5. Planned activities and overall achievement of the project

There are many camps in the project areas of 6 cities. The project was implemented as per approved project plan. All the activities of the project have been accomplished as per project plan. It is important to see the achievement of the planned activities which shown below:

Table-14 : Family Assistance

Sl. no	Activities	Targets (Physical)	Achiev-ement	Target (benefic-iaries)	Achiev-ement %
1	Construction and repairing of existing bamboo/ thatched tin shed houses for the poor camp families having sizes 8’ x 8’ in 6 camps	120 houses	120 houses	720	100%
2	Financial support to the families for matrimonial purposes to the poor orphans during marriages of girls	35 marriages	35 marriages	35	100%
3	Sinking of drinking TWs to the poor families of 6 camps as per proposed project areas	150 TWs	150 TWs	7,500	100%
4	Financial help to the extremely poor families of the camps for small scale income generation business in 6 camps	180 poor families	180 poor families	900	100%
5	Re-construction and repairing of drainage system in the 6 camps for drain out of logging out of water	22 drainage system	22 drainage system	1,100	100%
6	Provide winter clothes/ blankets/ quilts/ mosquito nets to the poor families of the camps during winter seasons to each family any one item based on requirement of the families	500 families	500 families	500	100%
7	Provide financial support to the disable persons those who cannot have any scope of work. They will be given small scale support for income generation work for self-employment	32 disable persons	32 disable persons	32	100%
8	Needy families will be given lively hood financial support once during the project period	160 poor families	160 poor families	160	100%
9	Help to poor during religious festivals and events especially during Ramadan	3000 families	3000 families	3,000	100%

Table-15
Education Project

Sl. no	Activities	Targets (Physical)	Achiev-ement	Target (benefic-iaries)	Achiev-ement %
1	Construction of 6 Non-formal Education Centers in 6 camps for enrolment of 6+ age group children of the camps	6 schools 180 students	6 schools 180 students	180	100%
2	Financial support for admission of the camp based children to high school who have completed primary level education	200 students	200 students	200	100%
3	Bear the expenses of teachers salary, establishment/ management costs of 6 private primary schools for one year period @ Tk. 30,000 for each school	6 schools	6 schools	6	100%
4	Provide financial support to the poor caliber students of primary schools in the private coaching center for improvement of quality of education	150	150	150	100%
5	Procure tools/ plants/ playing materials for extra curricula activities for the students of Non-formal education center of 6 schools	200	200	200	100%
6	Repair and reconstruction of superstructure of existing 6 established private primary schools already functioning in the camps	6 Schools	6 Schools	500	100%
7	Supply text books, khatas, pencils etc. to the students of private primary schools already functioning in the camps	500 Students	500 Students	500	100%
8	Supply Tiffin to the students for one month during the project period	500 Students	500 Students	500	100%
9	Provide dress to the students grade-01 to grade-04 of the existing private primary schools in the camps	500 Students	500 Students	500	100%
10	Provide financial assistance to the camps youth who are the students of Colleges and reading in under graduate classes	22 Students	22 Students	22	100%

This project is being jointly implemented by ISDCM and HCL with the assistance of DANIDA and the Government of Bangladesh. The HYSAWA Project is one of the parts of the Water Supply and Sanitary (WSS) component under the GoB-Danida Water Supply and Sanitary Sector Programme Support Phase II, 2006-2020 (WSSPS-II). The HYSAWA project is located in the three districts in the NW part of the country: Naogaon, Rajshahi and Nawabganj. (2) The project plans to deal with Hygiene, Sanitation and Water Supply development programme. It will facilitate and promote the Union Parishad (UP) based investments focusing on the poor, un-served and under-served areas. Funding for interventions will be channeled through a dedicated and autonomous “HYSAWA Fund”. The HYSAWA Fund is an autonomous body established under the Company Act of 1994 and is guided by a Governing Board chaired by the Secretary, LGD.

The Project activities are being implemented and financed through Local Government Support Unit (LGSU). In each of the three NW districts, separate Support Organization (SO) has been engaged to support LGSU to assist Union Parishad under the district for management of the HYSAWA Project activities. Under the HYSAWA Project, NGO Forum is also working for Capacity Building in 350 Ups in different districts of the country.
Total budget is Tk. 2,654 million. Of this the Danida will finance Tk. 1,405 million, GOB contribution is Tk. 306 million and the local beneficiary contribution is Tk. 943 million.

The HYSAWA fund is supporting the WSS activities in 200 unions of the three Districts. All 99 unions of the Naogaon District is being covered under the project.

In the Naogaon district, a Joint Venture Consortium of the House of Consultants Ltd and the Integrated Service for Development of Children & Mothers (HCL-ISDCM) has been engaged as SO. During the reporting period the project activities are being gradually fielded. The Project will continue for next two years.

1. Project Objectives

The HYSAWA Project is expected to contribute to all the WSSPS-II immediate objectives and long term development objectives.

The immediate objectives are:

To improve hygiene behaviour / practices;
To promote community-led total sanitation;
To increase coverage of safe water supply services;
To strengthen the capacity of Government, Local Government Institutions (LGIs), Non-Government Organizations and other stakeholders at all levels in the District under the Project in order to play their roles required achieving the above three immediate objectives; and
To promote greater devolution of administrative and financial authorities to LGIs in regard to hygiene, sanitation and water supply.

The long-term development objectives of the WSSPS-II are to contribute to poverty reduction through improved public health and sustainable environment.

The Support Organization will ensure capacity building of the LGI, Local NGOs and other stakeholders like private sectors to implement HYSAWA Project.

2. HYSAWA Strategies

The strategies include decentralization, community level implementation and union parishad level implementation. The Ups will implement the community schemes by engaging local NGOs. The schemes requested by villages will be appraised and sent, after consolidation, to Upazila WATSAN Committee (UWC) for validation. Once a union scheme is validated, the UP will then send the proposal to the HYSAWA FMO with a request for funding. The Support Organization (SO) will assist the UP in the identification, appraisal, preparation and processing of project proposals and fund requests. Necessary support for execution / implementation of the schemes will be given.

The project will endeavour to make the intervention sustainable with involvement of the local government institution by developing appropriate capacity. Ultimately this will improve the health of the local people leading to the alleviation of poverty.

3. Cross Cutting Issues

The following cross cutting issues will be embedded into the community scheme preparation process and thus will be reflected in all implementation activities:

Poverty;
Human Rights and Gender;
Good Governance;
Culture and Development;
HIV / AIDS; and
Environment.

The Project will adopt possible actions at the grass root level in accordance with the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), and the LGD pro-poor strategy.

4. Support Organization (SO)

A Support Organization has been engaged by LGSU for each NW district to support the Ups in the management of the project activities. The SO will supplement the capacity support at the UP level in promotional hygiene, sanitation and community scheme appraisal, preparation, processing them and managing their implementation. The SO will be a mobile unit traveling from UP to UP with the capacity support package. The SO will have a base office at Upazila headquarters and a coordinating office at district level, covering one district. The SO will need to have social as well as technical and project management skills. As an example, a National / Regional NGO and an engineering consulting firm could jointly make a consortium. The SO will ensure capacity building of LGIs and other key shareholders, like private sector etc.

5. Outputs

In order to achieve the immediate objectives of the Project the SO will have to produce the following outputs over the project period:

Respective GOB offices / officers in the district and Upazilas are cooperating, supporting in implementing HYSAWA Project activities;
UWSCs or relevant Upazila level Committees are functioning and playing their role properly in implementing HYSAWA Project activities as stipulated in the Project Document.

Some of the progress of activities accomplished under this project is presented in the following tables:

Table-13 : Showing the progress of activities of the project in 2008

Sl. no	Activities	Targets	Achievement (in %)
1	Mobilization	-	-
2	Communication	-	-
2.1	Dissemination of HYSAWA Project implementation Strategy and local Administration (Continuous process)	297	100%
2.2	Attend Upazila WATSAN Meeting (continuous)	33	100%
2.3	Assist UP Chairman to organize UP WATSAN Committee Meeting (continuous process)	297	100%
2.4	Assist P-NGO to activate Ward WATSAN Committee Meeting	1701	50%
2.5	Assist UP Chairman in selection of P-NGO	49	98%
2.5	Assist UP during evaluation of Technical and Financial Proposal of Local NGO	49	100%
2.6	Assist UP Chairman in selection of Union Facilitator (38 + 25 Ups)	63	100%
2.7	Assist UP in formation Proposal Evaluation Committee (PEC) for the Remaining UPs (97-89) = 8 Nos.	8	100%
2.8	Ensure signature of UP Chairman in Memorandum of Understand (MoU) received from FMO (97-92)= 5 Nos.	5	100%
2.9	Distribution of EC materials (63 P-NGOs)	72,750	100%
2.10	Design and establishment of Information Board in Enlisted UP Chairman Office	10	100%
3	Training	--	--
3.1	Assist DSU to organize PEC members Training	25	100%
3.2	Assist UP to organize Training of Union Facilitator (UF)	63	100%
3.3	Coordinate with NILG to get the Schedule of Training of UP Chairman and Members	92	100%
3.4	Coordinate NILG to get the Schedule of UP Secretary on Financial management	46	100%
3.5	Assist UP to organize training of UF	63	100%
3.6	Assist UP to organize and facilitate Training of P-NGO Personnel (Union Coordinator-1, Community Organizer-2, CF-18) total: 21 per UP (in 25 UP)	525	100%
3.7	Assist P-NGO to organize CDF Executives (5 from each UP)	125	100%
4	Community Empowerment
4.1	Assist P-NGO in CDF formation in 25 UP	25	100%
4.2	Assist P-NGO in Baseline Survey in 25 UP	25	100%
4.3	Assist P-NGO in deployment UP Staff in 25 UP	25	100%
4.4	Assist CO and CF in Need Assessment of CDF	25	100%
4.5	Assist UP in Site selection (3 from each UP) of Scheme	291	100%
4.6	Assist UP in Community Scheme Preparation	291	100%
5	Financial Management	-	-
5.1	Assist UP Chairman to open the remaining Bank account with scheduled Bank for HYSAWA Project	7	100%
5.2	Assist UP Secretary in maintaining regular project accounts and preparing Invoice	63	100%
5.2	Assist UP to get validation of scheme from Upazila	291	100%
5.3	Assist UP to forward scheme compilation and to get fund from FMO	63	100%
6	Engineering & Quality Control
6.1	Provide Technical support to P-NGO to increase the installation of Water Seal Family Latrine in communities @ 10 nos. in 25 UP	250	100%
6.2	Assist P-NGO in preparation of estimate, drawing and design for sub-project	291	100%
6.3	Assist UP in installation of hardware options	25	100%
7	Develop Contract Document	-	-
7.1	Assist UP in development of Contract document to contract out the hardware options installation	25	100%
7.2	Assist UP in signing of contractor’s documents and deployment of service provider	25	100%
8	Community Scheme Appraisal		100%
8.1	Assist UP in appraisal of community scheme	25	100%
8.2	Assist UP in quality materials procurement	25	100%
8.3	Assist UP in scheme-wise progress report	25	100%
8.4	Assist UP in choosing sustainable water option	25	100%
9	Progress Monitoring	-	-
9.1	Attend monthly coordination meeting at EE, DPHE Office, Naogaon to finalize monthly and quarterly workplan	3	100%
9.2	Organize monthly meeting with Upazila Coordinators to review progress of HYSAWA Project activities in the field as per workplan and other issues	3	100%