Bangladesh Community Sustainability Project

Let’s Bring Change through Improving Community Sustainability.

The Community Sustainability Program (CSP) aims to meet the needs of minority communities in the Bandarban Hills region of Bangladesh and empower them to continue to improve their communities into the future. The program focusses on improving access to quality education, sanitation and livelihood opportunities. Your support will enable lives to be changed through these key areas of work!

Education

The Community Sustainability Program builds on the Thlaituah project, supporting the two BHCOC hostels. This will continue the improvement of access to education for over 80 students from some of the poorest, least developed and politically marginalised groups in Bangladesh.

Currently, management and income support of the hostels have been built up to the point of covering their costs. This project will help to strengthen the management and income of these student hostels.

Your support will also help the hostels begin setting goals for re-location and establish a stronger income platform, ensuring that access to education will continue.

The program will also support teachers in remote communities – a new activity, attempting to bridge the gap between local and regional education opportunities.

Sanitation

Only 55% of people in Bangladesh have access to proper sanitation. The Community Sustainability Program aims to help improve sanitation for isolated tribal groups through training in personal hygiene and installing latrines.

Your support will help improve sanitation, hygiene and health for minority communities. Latrine installation and hygiene training have previously been conducted and these will be expanded to other locations. They have made a huge impact in lowering the amount of open defecation, in turn improving hygiene and safety.

A previous project undertaken by BHCOC, it was reported by the implementing partner that from the original 50 latrines an additional 110 latrines were built by community members using their own funds. The increase in the number of latrines has greatly reduced open defecation in those communities. It is envisaged that for every 10 latrines the project installs, another 20 latrines will be built by families using their own funds.

Livelihoods

Business support and business planning for handicraft livelihood activities will be developed to help provide sustainable income. Your support will assist women in approximately 50 selected communities (from the Bawm and other ethnic groups) to prepare a business plan and set up a handicraft business, to improve their income through communal activities, such as blanket making and selling their handicrafts.

GMP has partnered with the Bandarban Hills Churches of Christ (BHCOC) since 2011, developing hostels for rural children to access education and more recently in broader community development projects. BHCOC has introduced the Community Advancement Forum (CAF), a local Bangladesh NGO and together we are working on this project, with CAF being the official partner.

This program is a follow-on program from the Thlaituah Income Generation program in the Bandarban Hills.

Bangladesh Community Sustainability Project – Community Advancement Forum (CAF) is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).