Supported by: European Union
CASE STUDY: BARAVITA SELF- HELP GROUP (SHG).
The name of the village is Namapara under Tarapur Union of Sundarganj Upazila in Gaibandha district. This is a char village, where 3200 people are living. This is not only a char, but a char- island surrounded by the rivers, Brahmaputra and Tiata. Flood, river erosion and other natural disasters are the regular phenomenon, which causes problems destroying their food grains, lands and homes. As a result, they have to lead an in humanitarian lives and always expects relief from different sources.
Now forming the Selp-help group (SHG) consisting of 15 members, out of them 13 women and 2 men named as “ Baravita Selp- help group (SHG)” with the assistance of the Union Counselor under the ACCESS Project. After forming the group, they came to know about their rights and entitlements on public services, which are not always available to them. In this regard, to identify the local resources and their needs, they themselves prepared the resource mapping of their locality and also identify the community needs on education, health, agriculture, live-stocks and also for communication with their local government authority Union Parisad. And accordingly they prepared an annual work plan to communicate with the above- mentioned public service providers. Now the group sits on monthly basis, the meeting is held under the leadership of the President of the group. The meeting discusses about the problems are faced by the char dwellers decide how to solve them and where to communicate. They select the persons for communication with necessary areas and departments and review the progress and success.
Besides this, they discuss about the progress of the work plan and utilization of the local resources. Now the group is very happy to get opportunity to communicating with the public service providers and trying to build a bridge to cover the distance between the char dwellers and the Public Service Providers and the Union Parisad.