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On Going Project

Background:

Child labour in Bangladesh is common, with 4.8 million or 12.6% of children aged 5 to 14 in the work force. The government of Bangladesh has the target of eradicating hazardous child labour from the country by 2021. To contribute in this endeavor Grambangla Unnayan Committee has been implementing the project “CLARISSA – Child Labour Action Research and Innovation in Bangladesh” since November 2019. This project has been technically supported by ChildHope UK and funded by Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex/ DFID.

Main objectives:

: The main objective of the CLARISSA project is to surface the key drivers of modern slavery and the worst forms of child labour and developing interventions to counteract them.

Project Locations: :

Hazaribag, Kamrangir Char, Savar, Pallabi, Darussalam, Adabor, Mohammadpur, Matuail slum area of Jatrabari.

Duration :

November 2019-June 2023.

Background:

To improve the situation, GrambanglaUnnayan Committee (GUC) has been working for the waste picker community of Matuail dump site since 2008. In this endeavor, ChildHopeUk became a partner of GUC in 2012. From ChildHope UK, Global Brands Group (GBG) came to know about the situation of waste picker community and initiatives of GUC in 2018. Since then, GBG expanded their support for the non-formal primary and vocational education for the waste pickers’ and garment workers’ children.

Objective of the Project: :

The objective of the project is to take effective initiatives to provide quality primary education to the children of waste pickers and garment workers of Matuail Sanitary Landfill area, Dhaka.

Project Activities: :

• Providing monthly salary of 8 teachers and one caretaker for ensuring primary education for waste picker children

• Providing mid-day meal to the students of Grambangla School

• Providing refresher training to the school staff on inclusive education and safeguarding for capacity building

• Organizing quarterly meeting of Parents and Teachers Association (PTA)

• Providing salary of Project Education Officer.

Project Location: :

Matuail

Project Duration: :

January – December 2019

Background:

About 400,000 people in Bangladesh are struggling to earn their living by waste picking. Every year due to climatic events or other socio-economic reasons many poor families are forced to migrate to the big cities from the rural areas in search of fortune. But in reality, because of lack of education and skill, often they struggle to get a decent job and some of them are forced to become waste pickers.

In Dhaka, 120,000 people are trying to secure their livelihood by collecting, sorting, selling and recycling wastes from streets, dustbins and municipal dump sites. They work for 10 to 12 hours a day in a very dangerous and hazardous environment without any protection to earn Tk. 200 to Tk. 400. Mainly women and children are Involved in this occupation; so they are highly susceptible to different health issues and sometimes, disability.

Ensuring a Healthy Future for Child Waste Pickers

To ensure the access to knowledge, skills, rights awareness and aspirations needed to access life-changing opportunities and improve health of child, adolescent and women waste-pickers GrambanglaUnnayan Committee with the support of ChildHope UK/ Big Lottery Fund is implementing “Education and Health for Child Waste Pickers” project at Matuail, near the Sanitary Land Fill Area. NariMaitree is providing technical support to the project.

Project Outcomes:

During 2015 – 2018, GrambanglaUnnayan Committee will be working to achieve the following outcomes:

>To provide inclusive primary education for 200 children, including disabled children, and support children’s integration into mainstream government supported schools

>To provide vocational training and employment to 150 adolescents

>To support 100 waste-picking mothers to improve their health and access non-hazardous occupations to supplement their income

>To empower over 2,500 women, adolescents, children and men to be aware of their rights and engage in advocacy on issues that affect them, including accessing birth certificates that provide access to other entitlements.

GrambanglaUnnayan Committee (GUC) has been implementing a two year project titled `Improving Well-Being of the Child Waste Pickers of Matuail Waste Dump Site in Dhaka City’ with the financial support of Red Nose Day at Comic Relief, the USA since July 2016. The main objective of the project is to improve the well-being of the child waste pickers of living around Matuail sanitary landfill of Dhaka City Corporation (South).

Project Outcomes:

>Providing Daycare and Early Childhood Care Development service to 100 waste picking children.

>Providing primary education to100 waste picking children

>Ensuring child protection of 200 waste picking children

 

 

Project Title: Empowerment of Women Waste Pickers in Informal Sector and Building Capacity of their Organizations in Bangladesh

 

Background: Waste-pickers are one of the most disadvantaged and neglected groups in Bangladesh, working in hazardous conditions. They are significantly contributing to promote urban environment and green economy of the country, but neither have they any legal accreditation nor they are formally involved in Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) system by the City Corporations and Municipalities. A large number of women are working in this informal sector. Despite of all the contribution, they are deprived from the basic rights of nutritious food, shelter, education, access to health etc. Grambangla Unnayan Committee in collaboration with Women in Informal Economy- Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is implementing a project with a view to empowering informal women waste pickers in Bangladesh so that they can strengthen the Bangladesh Waste Picker Union and their Self-Help Groups/Cooperatives to raise their voice unitedly for their rights and for sustainable solutions of their lives.

 

 

 

Funded By: Women in Informal Economy- Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)

    • Matuail sanitary land fill areas, Dhaka South City Corporation.

 

    • Boilarpur sanitary land fill areas, Dhaka North City Corporation areas.

 

    • Secondary Transfer Centres at Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Hazaribagh, Gabtoli.

 

    • Barisal City Corporation.

 

    • Kuakata, 2nd largest coastal City of Bangladesh

Time Frame: December 2021 - March 2023.

Objectives:

  1. Building institutional capacity of Bangladesh Waste Picker Union;
  2. Supporting the waste pickers to conduct advocacy campaigns regarding their basic rights, livelihood, effects of climate change on their lives, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and waste pickers;
  3. Advocacy for establishing legitimate and formal role for the existing women informal waste pickers in the Municipal Waste Management System by national laws, regulations;
  4. Advocacy for establishing legitimate and formal role for the existing women informal waste pickers in the Extended Producers’ Responsibilities (EPR) especially in managing plastic and electronic wastes;
  5. Supporting the waste pickers especially the Bangladesh Waste Picker Union (BWPU) to have dialogues with government, Local Government Institutions and other stakeholders for claiming legitimate and formal role in waste management and to have access to different services like health, education etc. and social safety net program. 

Background:

To facilitate the enforcement of tobacco control policies and surveillance to stop interference of tobacco industries especially TAPS violations; Grambangla Unnayan Committee has been implementing a project in 6 district and 12 sub-district towns of Barishal Division with the support from The Union and Bloomberg Initiatives to Reduce Tobacco Use.

Project Duration: 18 Months (September 2021- March, 2023)

Funded by: The Union & Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use

Objectives of the project:

  1. To support in institutionalizing the system of monitoring and implementation of Tobacco control implementation guidelines for local government institutions and to support in strengthening of the National Tobacco Control Program at the sub-national level (division, district and upazila) for facilitate implementation of the NTCC tobacco control program;

  2. To build capacity of the representatives and officials of Local Government Institutions on implementation of ‘Tobacco control implementation guidelines for local government institutions’ and tobacco control laws for tackling tobacco industry’s interference;

  3. To support implementation of “Tobacco control implementation guidelines for local government institutions” and promoting compliance with the provisions of tobacco control laws with special focus on TAPS ban provision in Barisal Division.

Strategies to achieve the objectives are as follows:

Strategy 1: Institutionalizing system building for implementation and monitoring of `Tobacco control implementation guidelines for local government institutions and for facilitating implementation of the NTCC’s tobacco control program.

Strategy 2: Capacity building for enforcement of ‘Tobacco control implementation guidelines for local government institutions’ and tobacco control laws and policies for tackling tobacco industry’s interference

Strategy 3: Implementation of “Tobacco control implementation guidelines for LGIs” and promoting compliance with the provisions of tobacco control laws with special focus on TAPS ban provision

Background: Bangladesh, like any other part of the world, is faced with the phenomenon of children and youth living and working on the streets. According to UNCRC and National Children Policy, street children are the most vulnerable who always face discrimination and marginalization, and struggle to access education, health care, food and stay safe. They have the same rights as every other child, but are too often invisible to policy makers and service providers due in part to a lack of accurate data. According to a survey of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies and UNICEF, 2005, there are 9,79,0728 street children in Bangladesh and among them 7, 00,000 street children live in Dhaka City and 9,771 street children live in Barishal Division. As a part of the implementation of policies adopted by the Government of Bangladesh for the development of disadvantage children, Grambangla Unnayan Committee has been implementing a project titled “Words To Reality: Promoting Street Children’s Rights in Bangladesh”. This project has been technically supported by Consortium for Street Children and funded by Commonwealth Foundation, UK.

Objectives: The main objective of this project is to conduct advocacy activities for putting street children’s voices on the public agenda, urging the government and other organizations to turn commitments to street children into positive, concrete actions.

Project Duration: 36 Months (September, 2019-September, 2022)

Project Location: Barishal: 30 wards of Barishal. However GUC has been implementing some dialogues and advocacy activities in Dhaka city.

Background: Bede community is regarded as nomadic people “river gyspy” by the Bangladeshi society. Bedes are usually regarded as “River Gypsy” in Bangladesh. According to a recent estimate Bedes are 800,000 in number in Bangladesh. More than 95 percent Bedes are still illiterate. About 98 percent Bedes live below poverty line. Marriage is arranged for almost all the Bede girls by their families with the onset of menstruation i.e. in the age of 13-14 years and these girls take the responsibilities as earners for the newly formed family. The children of the fleets who move rapidly from one place to another are not able to receive education from any government primary school or NGO school. Grambangla Unnayan Committee, with the help of Research Initiatives Bangladesh (RIB) is implementing a project to promote access to early childhood development and primary education opportunities for a nomadic group of girl and boy Bede children through establishing and operating a Kajoli Model Child Learning Centre (Kajoli Model Shishu Shikkha Biksash Model)-cum-non-formal primary school.

Project Duration: 3 years

Project Location- Kuichamura, Keraniganj, Dhaka.

Funded by: Pratichi (Bangladesh) Trust

Cooperating organization in implementation of the project: Research Initiatives, Bangladesh (RIB), House: 07, Road: 17, Block-C, Banani, Dhaka-1213, Bangladesh.

Objectives-

  • To facilitate a nomadic Bede Participatory Action Research (PAR) group in participatory collective discussion in exploring ways, implementing actions and reflections for inclusion of their children in early childhood development and primary education opportunities; prevention of early marriage of Bede girl children, progressive conscientization and other development issues;

  • To build capacity of a teacher on implementation of a Kajoli Model Shishu Shikkha Bikash Kendra-cum-non-formal primary education centre;

  • To establish and operate an Kajoli Model Shishu Shikkha Bikash Kendra-cum-non-formal primary education centre with a quasi-nomadic Bede group;

  • To ensure gender equality in enrollment and learning opportunities for girl and boy Bede children

  • To build capacity of the teacher as peer health education to address prevention of COVID-19, prevention of childhood diarrhea and pneumonia, referral of Bede people to the right health care facilities;

  • To carry out advocacy activities at local and national level based on the outcome of the PAR discussions/participatory collective discussions for inclusion of nomadic Bede children in primary education opportunities.

 

Strategies to achieve the objectives are as follows:

Strategy-1: Progressive conscientization for self-development of a nomadic Bede group through Participatory Action Research (PAR) process (series of collective discussion sessions, actions and reflection, actions etc.)

Strategy-2: Establishing and operating a Kajoli Model Shishu Shikkha Bikash Kendra-cum-Non-Formal Primary Education centre with a quasi-nomadic Bede group.

Strategy-3: Capacity building of the teacher on implementation of Kajoli Model Shishu Shikkha Bikash Kendra-cum-Non-Formal Primary Education program, promotion of health education and referral for Bedes to right health service delivery points in health needs.

Strategy-4: Nomadic Bede Community Based Health Education and Referral Activities by the Teacher-cum-Peer Health Educator.

Strategy-5: Advocacy and struggle for establishing Human Rights of the Bede Community.