STORIES OF PARTNERSHIP

Parveen Akhter is well known in Badaghat union of Bishwamvarpur, Sunamganj. She is the newly-elected Union Parishad member of 2021. Behind her success, the most critical factor has been her collaboration with the community and their support in return.

Parveen has always aspired to become a political leader and serve her community. In 2016, she contested the local election for the first time but failed to get elected. She was disappointed, however did not give up.

In this journey, her next step was to join a reflection action circle and listen carefully to the needs of the community. Gradually, she supported the members of the community to avail different government services. She succeeded to bridge the gap of knowledge and link the community with the service providers. In disaster and emergency, she stood by the affected families and led the response with the support of her women group. The community began to appreciate her leadership quality and encouraged her to compete in the Union Parishad election once again. There was massive canvassing for her to mobilise community support. It was joined by 240 members from eight women groups.

Parveen is now a Union Parishad member, overseeing three wards of Badaghat Union!

After winning the election Parveen said,

Baggaw village of Bishwamvarpur upazila is located on the banks of Jadukata River. Around 3,119 people live here and almost half of them earn their livelihood through agriculture. Every year the village is hit by flash floods, damaging the embankment around the river and putting the livelihoods of the community at risk.

2016 was particularly a difficult year for the community. The embankment completely broke down, when a flash flood hit and the entire village was flooded. Around 33 houses were washed away and 800 hectares of land became infertile.

A group of 25 women called ‘Baggaw Reflection Circle’, led by Anwara Begum, identified illegal extraction of sand around the embankments as the prime cause of the breach of the embankment. They submitted multiple memorandums to local government officials for support and they even lodged a case against illegal sand extraction.

These actions stopped sand extraction during daytime, however at night extraction was ongoing. Therefore, in 2017 the circle members were mobilised and around 300 men and women came together and formed a human chain, as well as collected signatures for filing a petition.

Eventually in 2019, after four years of relentless efforts, the embankment was finally repaired by the local government. Unfortunately, the embankment lasted for only a year putting the community at risk all over again. In 2021, the Water Development Board partially repaired the embankment.

In its present condition, it now benefits approximately 2,783 people from six villages. To secure long-term safety, further initiatives need to be taken.

Women working outside of their home in the camps, and that too, in construction is quite unusual for the Rohingya community. All site development work previously were undertaken with men labourers. However, in 2020, it changed. Over 4,500 women in the camps have been implementing 747 women-led schemes for the infrastructural development

The idea of women-led schemes was first introduced by ActionAid in camps with the intent to engage women in communitydevelopment work and changing existing discriminatory practices. This could not have been possible without the partnerships with women leaders and community influencers, such as Majhis and Imams.

In Nilphamari, the Dalit population were deprived of their basic rights, such as lack of a crematorium to perform rituals after death of Dalits. This bothered Sabi Rani Rabidash, who also hails from the Dalit community.

She joined a young people’s group, called ‘Agrogami Jubo Foundation’, formed by ActionAid Bangladesh and its local partner Udayankur Seba Sangstha (USS). Sabi Rani demonstrated exemplary leadership skills there by upholding the interest and rights of the community and working for its development. She eventually became the secretary of the group and with her group members led various movements. These movements included ensuring proper accommodation for the sweeper community, fighting for the rights of the Transgender and Dalit communities, and raising awareness on hygiene during the pandemic.

Having manifested her leadership skills and developing a certain level of confidence, Sabi took over the issue of the Dalit community. She brought it to the attention of the UNO (Subdistrict Executive Officer), who advised her to apply for Khas Land (Government land). The application was on the back burner for three months, however Sabi did not give up. She re-submitted the application and was successful to get 10 decimals of Khas land for the crematorium. Icing on the top - she also got allocation of BDT 100,000 for constructing a boundary wall around it.

Sabi is an example of courage and conviction and she is changing the engagement pattern of the local officials with the Dalit community and young people, by ensuring their concerns are taken into consideration.

Art and culture can be powerful tools to raise awareness on different socio-economic issues, which was reinforced by a children’s group from Galachipa upazila of Patuakhali district. ActionAid Bangladesh and its partner, AVAS, equipped 310 children from this area with knowledge and skills on child leadership and cultural movement. They then formed small groups and started organising street theatres on different societal issues, such as, child marriage, child labour and climate change.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been reported that child marriage rose steeply. The children in the community wanted to stop it. To try and make an impact, they formed a theatre group to raise awareness and performed plays. One of these plays were ‘Kushum Er Biye’ (marriage of Kushum), which highlights child marriage, its repercussions and its impact on the girl child. The performance was recorded and circulated to over 1,000 people during the lockdown.

It garnered people’s support against child marriage.