RANGPUR, Mar 10 (BSS): Thousands of poor people, living in remote char areas on the Brahmaputra basin, have achieved laudable success in the fields of economy, health, hygiene, sanitation and safe drinking water in recent years.
The char families have achieved the success under the comprehensive the Chars Livelihoods Programme (CLP) by bidding a permanent good-bye to seasonal 'monga' through eradicating abject poverty and improving livelihoods.
Agriculture and Environment Coordinator Mamunur Rashid of RDRS Bangladesh, one of the implementing organisations of CLP, said the char people lived in utter poverty for decades together in the pasts.
"They are now leading meaningful life as the CLP has been providing all necessary assistances to improve their livelihoods after raising plinths of their houses in the remote char areas since 2004 in ten northwestern districts," he said.
The UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID), Australian Government through Australian Agency for International Development (Aus AID) and Bangladesh Government have been funding implementation of the CLP.
According to CLP sources, 900,000 people of 55,000 poorest households were benefited under CLP phase-I during 2004-2010 and 60,000 more households out of 67,000 so far under phase-II (2010-2016) to improve livelihoods of 1.9 million extremely poor char people by 2016.
Under the programme, plinths of the beneficiary families have been raised, grants, assets, training and other assistances provided to improve their life standard by making them self-reliant through income generation activities.
The achievements were possible following the effective assistance, inspiration and motivational work being conducted by the field level officials and employees of different NGOs under the comprehensive CLP activities in the char village.
Like in the other char villages, some 108 CLP beneficiary families have set up sanitary latrines and 12 others tube wells at their homesteads in Kawniar Char village under Roumari upazila with their saved money from their income generation activities.
