Bangladesh project profile

Tarash ADP

Education
Schools are poorly maintained and equipped and teachers lack adequate training. Seasonal floods damage roads making it difficult for children to walk to school and so disrupting their studies. About one-quarter of children do not attend school because their parents cannot afford school expenses or do not understand the importance of education. Less than 40 per cent of adults are literate.

Tarash ADP provides classroom furniture and school sports equipment. It runs sports and cultural programmes and rewards top students to encourage school attendance. Students are assisted with fees, textbooks and stationery.

The ADP runs a preschool programme, after-school coaching classes and literacy classes for adults. Workshops for teachers improve their techniques and introduce new topics like child rights and HIV prevention.

Health
Poverty, poor sanitation and lack of knowledge about healthcare contribute to malnutrition, diarrhoea and preventable diseases. Most villagers seek care from traditional healers, and few pregnant women receive trained assistance to deliver their babies.

Tarash ADP arranges regular health checks for children. It trains traditional birth attendants in safer delivery techniques. Health volunteers are taught nutrition, preventative healthcare, first aid, diarrhoea management and how to spread messages about preventing sexually-transmitted infections and HIV.

World Vision forms committees to raise community awareness of water and sanitation issues and install safe tube wells and hygienic latrines.

Agriculture and income generation
Land in Tarash is fertile and suitable for growing a variety of crops, so 95 per cent of households rely on agriculture for some or all of their income. However, regular flooding and poor quality seeds result in meagre harvests. Most farmers cannot afford to own land and must lease their fields from landlords, leaving them little income to meet their families’ needs. People lack vocational skills and capital necessary to start small businesses.

Tarash ADP teaches farmers modern agricultural methods, animal husbandry, fish farming and tree planting. It forms farmers’ groups, trains village veterinarians, provides farm equipment and good quality seeds and supports farmers to experiment with new crops.

World Vision provides training in skills such as tailoring and handcrafts, operates revolving loan programmes and encourages saving through development groups.

Disaster mitigation
Tarash is in a disaster-prone area. Many low fields and villages are flooded for up to six months a year. Droughts, tornados and hail storms are also common, putting homes and crops at risk.

World Vision trains leaders and community members to prepare for natural disasters and helps them assess and mitigate risk.

Community leadership
The ADP forms development groups and trains members in literacy, leadership, boo- keeping, child rights and human rights. Group members regularly save a small amount of money in a pooled fund from which they can later borrow money at low interest for personal or business needs.

Sustainable development
World Vision started Tarash ADP in 1997, and is empowering the community to drive the development work so it is sustainable. World Vision helps local groups to manage this work until they are able to do it themselves.