| WHAT WE DO: | ||
| + | Equipping Transformational Agents: Teach Biblical vision and values training through training materials development, training and personal development of trainers, teaching principals of biblical participatory learning, consulting and training in contextualization of materials for different cultures. | |
| + | Disaster Preparedness and Response: Disaster preparedness workshops, developing disaster response plans, train workers, respond to major natural disasters through emergency relief. | |
| + | Holistic Community Development: Small learning and savings groups, Godly values, health, legal rights education, guide and establish sustainability. | |
| + | Education and Community Development: Operating schools in slum communities, development activities with parents and community leaders. | |
As a woman from the lowest caste
of Hinduism, Aradhona lived her life on the bottom rung of society. Her husband worked as a lowly cleaner, and Aradhona’s life revolved around her home. In the slum where she lived, everyone felt inferior to other Bengali’s because of their religion and class. Aradhona felt her life had no value at all.
When Aradhona first made the decision to join an FH learning and savings group, the decision was not easy. Despite their daily struggle with poverty, Aradhona’s family disapproved of the group. They believed a woman should always stay at home. Aradhona was not allowed to venture out, not even to her neighbor's house. Through the persistence of FH staff visiting Aradhona’s family, they reluctantly consented to allow Aradhona to join.
Aradhona joined a learning and savings group with 18 other women in her community. Immediately the other group members saw her potential and elected Aradhona to be the group Cashier. Aradhona had never had such a role before. But through training and encouragement from FH staff, her confidence began to grow. Aradhona began to speak boldly in her women’s group and share her opinions. At home she no longer felt intimidated. Aradhona talked and shared about everything she was learning through FH with her family. Gradually they too became excited and no longer gave Aradhona trouble for joining the group.
After several years of learning and growing, all the groups in Aradhona’s community were ready for the next step. Each group elected representatives to form a community-based organization. They named their organization “Shubondhan” meaning “Harmonious Relationship”. Among the representatives, Aradhona was elected Chairperson.
Within just 5 years, Aradhona went from being a housewife to the leader of an organization representing more than 300 women. Aradhona’s passion and dream for women’s development grew every day. She eagerly participated in more leadership training and organizational management training so she could serve her community better. With fellow leaders, Aradhona travelled to visit another community-based organization formed by FH in Chandpur, 169km away. Before that, Aradhona had never even travelled outside of Dhaka.
Aradhona says, “After getting involved with FH, my skills, attitude, and behavior has changed a lot. When I got an opportunity to visit another project, that also helped me to develop my leadership skills. Now I have a dream for our CBO and I have a vision of where I want us to go.”
Aradhona’s passion to serve is rooted in the Biblical values she has learned through her group and the personal investment of the FH staff in her community. “The FH values have changed my personal life a lot. They help me to be obedient to God. The values act like a bridge between me and God. They have impacted my family, especially when I received our lesson about controlling anger. Through this lesson I learned about forgiveness and sacrifice.”
The Shubondhan organization is currently in the process of registering with the government as an officially recognized women’s development organization. The women in Aradhona’s community are leading transformed lives. Aradhona is working every day to lift her community out of poverty. “I know that if I work in God’s way for human development, then He will give peace in my heart and mind like I have never felt before.” Aradhona herself leads a transformed life, and is a light for others to live the same. "
+ FH HISTORY:
FH has been working in Bangladesh since the birth of the nation in 1971. Responding initially to the devastation of Cyclone Bhola, the brutal war of independence, and the famine of 1973-74, FH has remained on the beautiful, fragile and busy floodplain of Bangladesh ever since.
FH’s work in Bangladesh is based on helping people to meet their long-term needs. Disempowerment is an enormous problem amongst the very poor of Bangladesh, and FH’s Family and Community Transformation program meets this head-on. FH gathers people – mostly women, since they are the most excluded – together in Savings and Learning Groups. There, they learn how to read and write, and learn biblical values to help them solve problems in their families and communities.
Bangladesh is an extraordinary country – broad, beautiful, crowded and chaotic, with great opportunities and profound needs. Bangladeshis are more than capable of helping themselves, and FH’s aim in Bangladesh is to release each participant in their God-given potential, to bless their families and communities, and their remarkable nation.
+ bangladesh's HISTORY:
Bangladesh has the highest population density of any nation-state in the world, and is the flood-plain of the rivers which drain the Himalayas and northern India. It floods each year, often leaving as much as half of the country underwater. Because of its low-lying land, almost all of its 160 million people are threatened by rising sea levels due to climate change. Poverty is widespread, and literacy levels outside the upper-class are low. Class systems entrap many in low self-esteem, and lock many in the poverty they were born into.
Bangladesh was once known as East Bengal, and was an important part of British India, with a rich cultural heritage. In 1947, it gained independence at partition, as the eastern section of Pakistan. Separated from West Pakistan by more than a thousand miles, it became impoverished and ignored by its own government. Tension grew between East and West Pakistan, with Bangla (the language of Bengal) being suppressed by the government and celebrated by nationalists.
In 1971, a Bangla party was denied the right to form a government after being elected in country-wide polls. Along with a poor governmental response to a cyclone in 1970, this stoked anti-Pakistan sentiment, and the Pakistani army was deployed to suppress protests. East Pakistan declared independence, and a violent civil war followed, ending nine months later.
The new country of Bangladesh struggled, suffering famine throughout 1973 and 1974. The following decades were marked by developmental success and failure, as corruption, military coups and one-party rule threatened the potential of Bangladesh. Democracy was restored in 1991. Over the last two decades, Bangladesh has grown. The future is uncertain, but as FH empowers the poor FH is seeing slow but steady – and exciting – success.
+ FACTS:
+ Many parents are uneducated, and do not know the value of education. Poverty becomes an inheritance, as their children leave school early, convinced they are incapable of success.
+ Only 48% of adult women can read.
+ 48% of children are underweight for their age.
+ 81% of people live on less than $2 a day.
+ Bangladesh is essentially one big flood plain. At their worst (in 1998), annual floods covered 83% of Bangladesh in water.
+ Facts From: UNICEF
NAME
