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Meet Mohammed Hossain, a resilient soul with a story of hope and transformation. Born on January 1, 1956, in Myanmar, Mohammed’s life took an unexpected turn when the Myanmar Army attacked his village and destroyed their houses. Faced with adversity, he, along with his family of five, embarked on a journey to escape the turmoil.
Their path led them to Refugees Camp 13 in Bangladesh, where they initially found solace under a temporary tarpaulin tent. However, as the years unfolded, their makeshift home succumbed to the harsh elements, leaving Mohammed and his family in a desperate situation.
In his own words, Mohammed recounts, “We struggled with the damaged house, hoping something would change. Our days were spent waiting for new help to arrive.”
That help did arrive, in the form of the Self Development Initiative (SDI) organization. Recognizing the hardships faced by Mohammed and his family, SDI stepped in to provide a lifeline.
The intervention brought about a remarkable transformation. SDI provided a new, durable shelter that became a sanctuary for Mohammed’s family. No longer plagued by the fear of the dark, his children found joy in their improved living conditions.
But the assistance didn’t stop there. SDI, with its commitment to holistic support, equipped the family with solar energy systems, fans, and lights. Now, nights were illuminated, and hot days were met with a refreshing cool breeze.
Expressing his gratitude, Mohammed Hossain shared, “The new shelter is more durable and comfortable than the previous one. We are immensely thankful to SDI for providing us with this facility. May Allah bless you all and accept your kind efforts.”
Mohammed Hossain’s story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the positive impact that compassionate intervention can have on the lives of those facing adversity.
Bangladesh, being an agricultural country, is highly dependent on groundwater irrigation given the fact that the existence of this resource was seen as abundant till recent years. As the surface water supply is decreasing day by day during the dry season, but the demand for irrigation is ever increasing, so the increasing trend in agricultural production is leaving the aquifer in vulnerable brink. In Bangladesh, about 95% of the total irrigated land is being covered by minor irrigation. Groundwater irrigation drastically increased in Bangladesh since the last three decades. But the source is limited and it is declining day by day due to intensive use of tube wells during dry season. According to Bangladesh Water Act, 2013 and its Rules, it is important to identify the water scarce areas and sustainable water resources management. The paradigm shift from ‘groundwater development’ to ‘groundwater management’ in Bangladesh as laid out in Bangladesh Water Rules, 2018 through aquifer mapping in different hydro-geological settings require robust groundwater management plans at the appropriate scale to be devised and implemented. As one of the major sources of water for the country as well as an inevitable part of the hydro-logical system, groundwater resource needs to be seen as limited resource and therefore its management plan should associate the specification of sustainable abstraction limit.
The recent downward trend in groundwater levels in the High Barind region, in the northwestern part of Bangladesh, is evidently representing the alarm, coined with the rapid urbanization which is persistently decreasing the potential recharge area. Groundwater recharge in Bangladesh is mainly take place by monsoon rainfall and flooding. Geographically the Barind area is slightly elevated compared to the other part of Bangladesh (9 to 45 meters from MSL), thus located in flood free zone. So, the main source of groundwater recharge in this region is only rainfall. But the lowest amount of rainfall occurs in this part of the country, and thus the Barind area has become severely drought prone zone. On the other hand, thick sticky clay surface of Barind Tract act as aquitard which impede groundwater recharge and increase surface runoff. As a result, groundwater table in this region is successively falling by years with increasing withdrawal of water for irrigation.
Self Development Initiative (SDI) has worked in Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) project as a Partner Consultant in Joint Venture with Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) for ”Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Baseline Study of the State of Water Resources in the High Barind Region” in Naogaon District. The project got implemented under the Water Resource Planning Organization (WARPO) of the Ministry of Water Resources of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in compliance with the Bangladesh Water Rules, 2018 with financial support from Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency (SDC), in the High Barind region to protect the water sources and aquifers and develop sustainable water resources management in solving practical problems of water scarcity.
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is the process of involving local people in the analysis and interpretation of their own situation of a given rural area. The local people i.e. the participants took a leadership role in collecting, analyzing, interpreting and presenting information and in this process imparts knowledge and development insight to the specialists and extension agents. PRA approached embodies a whole range of techniques which revealed valuable information/data on the resources and skills existing in the village, wealth structure and dynamics of caste and class. For management of water resources, PRA is conducted to establish rapport with the village community as well as to identify and define problems for prioritization in the village itself.
Activities performed:
- Performed the baseline study, identified the water sources, present water use scenario and sectoral water demand up to union/ mouza level of the High Barind region through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) approach.
- Conducted Focus-Group Discussion (FGD) meetings through PRA at mouza level; each meeting covered 40 mouzas, with 1 participant from each mouza. One-third of the participants were women.
- Identified the current location and status of observation/monitoring wells and irrigation borehole logs for each union/ mouza of the High Barind region.
- Established baseline conditions concerning populations, natural resources, land use and farming systems, agricultural practices and their constraints and opportunities.
- Ensured equitable account of views of different socio-economic groups; identified special needs and aspirations of specific group like women, marginal farmers, landless group, fishermen and minority groups.
- Incorporated people’s needs, views and preferences in regarding water availability, water demand and water use in the study area through people’s participation and associated consultation process at local level with PRA approach.
- Prepared all physical features of land use inventory using GIS application and satellite image processing; developed GIS, RS and Time series database collected from different primary and secondary sources.
- Prepared a detail PRA report with comprehensive maps for water availability, water use, water demand, water scare areas, water zoning, aquifer formation and location and status of monitoring wells in the High Barind region.
Reaching Out of School Children Project – Phase II
Implemented by: Self Development Initiative (SDI)
Specialized Technical Agency : Save the Children in Bangladesh
Pre-training status:
Tumpa is the youngest of the six children of Zafar Alam and Hajera Khatun. As her father is not able to earn due to aging, the whole family depends on the small income of her mother. The two elder brothers got married and separated long time ago. Even though she was the youngest member of the family but due to financial constraints she had to keep herself away from hobbies and desires. Continuing to study also became very difficult for her. She said, “I wanted to buy clothes of different designs and colors, but I could not because It was difficult to meet my own expenses then. Later, one day I heard about ROSC’s Pre-vocational Training program through SDI’s miking. There I got the opportunity to train myself in Industrial Sewing Machine Operation and Tailoring”.
Post-training status:
I learned to work for 3 months in Industrial Sewing Machine Operation and Tailoring. Hard and complex tasks were well taught by our madam, with care. She wouldn’t teach another thing as long as we hadn’t learned one task well. After finishing the training program, I bought a sewing machine with the money received from the course and made some clothes for myself and the children of my area, which were liked by people. Since then, many people from my neighborhood came and asked me to make clothes for them. As a result now, I have some income of my own. Besides, I can also provide some assistance to my family. I can also buy something for my nieces and nephews which is a great pleasure for me. My parents are very happy.
Future plans:
I also want to teach Industrial Sewing Machine Operation and Tailoring to those who want to learn it in my area exactly the way I learned the work through ROSC-II project. At the same time, I would like to raise a small amount of capital and set up a tailoring shop of my own. Finally, I hope the government will come up with such projects in the future too, Insha’Allah.
N.B: The picture has been blurred at the request of the beneficiary.
Emergency relief distribution for fire victims in Rohingya Refugee Camp-16, Ukhiya Cox’s Bazar.
Educational technology and pedagogy are constantly changing. SDI stays on top of what’s best for the clients, learners, and partners. One thing never changes: the need for high-quality content.
SDI build a project from the ground up, working hand in hand with the partners to develop content that speaks to the end user.
To resolve the accommodation crisis of the Rohingya refugees SDI mainly focuses on construction of temporary shelters. Here are some snaps of ongoing Shelter Project of SDI for the fire affected people at Camp-8W.
Rohingya refugees came into Bangladesh with empty handed and bare footed. Still there are many refugees who have not got the due privilege of shelter houses. So, constructing shelter houses is an ongoing project and it is always required. Many shelter houses also became invalid due to the fire broke out and other natural calamities such as excessive rain and hill slide. To meet such realistic demands, there is no alternative but constructing long durable shelter houses. Considering all these facts, SDI has started the project of ‘Construction of Newly Designed Shelter Houses’ for the most vulnerable Rohingya refugees.