Bangladesh Group 2006

Details:

About one-third of Bangladesh floods annually during the monsoon rainy season, hampering economic development. Many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land.

CowFund’s partner in Bangladesh is Integrated Development Foundation (IDF), a Grameen Bank affiliate which is implementing the ‘Poverty Alleviation through Micro-credit Program (PAMP)’.

This program targets poor and disadvantaged people, particularly women, of Juraichari Upazila in the Rangamati Hill District of Bangladesh, part of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. According to a Household and Income Survey conducted in the Year 2000 by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the percentage of absolute poverty in the Chittagong Hill Tracts was approximately 80%.

IDF’s ‘PAMP’ program includes training in:

• Group savings, credit management and micro-insurance
• Preparing and implementing income generating activities - e.g. animal husbandry, sewing groups, etc
• Social issues - health, sanitation and rights.

The program will run for two-years (2005 - 2007) from outside sources such as CowFund, after which time the revolving fund established by PAMP will be sustainable.