CORE PROGRAM:

SOCIAL SERVICES

CORE PROGRAM/WORKING SECOTR

SOCIAL SERVICES

Background of the Program:

Ensuring sustainable inclusive development is a key initiative of the organization. It considers community as the center of all social development actions, and since inception UNNAYAN is committed to provide quality services to the community. UNNAYAN is striving to meet needs of the community by assisting those who are experiencing economic hardship, helping families to become self- reliant and providing community-based services to protect, stabilize and strengthen families. Under community-based interventions, problems faced by a community are first identified. It may include: need for tube-wells and sanitary latrines at public places (schools, colleges, mosques, temples, library), small bridges and culverts for public use, lack of community awareness or capacity for immediate response to natural disasters, and so on. However, UNNAYAN does not address such problems in all cases by itself. It does whatever is within its means and sensitizes and campaigns to the right and identifies existing/ available services providers for action concerning relevant cases and usually that works.

Major Activities and Services:

Since inception UNNAYAN has been providing the following social services, among others:
• Tube well and sanitary latrine Installation;
• Construction of Bridge/culvert;
• Distribution of Relief;
• Rehabilitation of Beggars;
• Scholarship for the poor meritorious students;
• Advocacy Campaigns;
• Establish ENRICH Center;
• Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) Program.

Major Activities and Services (Details)

Tube Well and Sanitary Latrine Installation

UNNAYAN installed/repair tube wells and sanitary latrines in its working areas under different projects/programs. Through this service, the community people now have the opportunity to drink safe water and use hygiene sanitary latrines which reduced waterborne diseases.

Small Culvert Construction

UNNAYAN constructed small culverts for the community which helped in establishing better communication and supported for accessing to market. As a result, transportation and marketing facilities for agricultural and other products of the people have improved. Medical facilities have also been increased for the people due to easy road communication.

Relief Distribution

In Bangladesh, almost every year one or more natural disaster (cyclone, flood etc.) causes loss of life, crops, livestock and other properties/assets, sometimes severely. Whenever any catastrophe takes place, the local poor people become the worst victims of such misfortunes, women and children in particular. Loss of field crops, poor sanitation, lack of food, waterborne diseases and loss of family income-all contributed to lives on risk. The disaster affected households have been facing acute shortage of food, drinking water and shelter. To reduce their vulnerabilities, UNNAYAN has incorporated relief and rehabilitation activities into its disaster management programs.

Beggar Rehabilitation

Many people in our society are involved with begging willingly or unwillingly. Begging can be eradicated from the society through improving socio-economic condition of these beggars and establishing their human dignity. The beggar rehabilitation is a new and challenging thrust of UNNAYAN that targets the street beggars to transform them into productive members of the society. The program started with the view to donate one-time grant money among the beggars and involving them in income generating activities and thus bringing them back to mainstream society. UNNAYAN has been implementing the program under ENRICH program with the financial assistance of PKSF.

The program follows a customized rehabilitation plan formulated for every participant in cooperation with their respective Union Parishads. Under this program, each participant has received a financial grant of BDT 1 lac on the condition that he/she would use 70 percent of the grant in a sustainable Income Generating Activity (IGA). The beggars are assisted providing kinds not cash as per their wish list. The assets are cow, goat, poultry, auto rickshaw and opening grocery shop or tea stall. These beggars provided homestead land documents for living, milking cows and financial assistance for erecting houses, grocery shops and running capital for small business, 1 lac for each. The rehabilitated beggars are now involved in income generating activities and earning about BDT 4,000 per month on an average.

Awareness Campaigns

UNNAYAN takes awareness building and sensitization initiatives such as issue-based courtyard session, orientation and day observation with the active participation of the community people. During the reporting year, 6 national and international days/week (international mother language day, international women day, international environment day, international AIDS day and fisheries week) were observed through rally and discussion session where UNNAYAN, District and Upazila level government officials, NGO representatives and the local people participated. Very recently, UNNAYAN also has arranged a cultural program to aware the local people about the social evils (such as child marriage, child labor, dowry, violence against women, trafficking of women and children etc.) and superstitions which hinder individual and social development.

Youth Development and Job Linkage

Youth development program has been specially designed to help the youth to inculcate human and social values and to generate employment opportunities for them. The purpose is to equip them to find employment on the one hand and help create healthy social environment in their locality by getting rid of social ills like child marriage, eve teasing, violence against women, child labor, dowry, drug addiction etc. At the same time, they will also help raise awareness in favor of ethics, minority rights, and fairness.

Regarding employment, efforts are made to create both self-employment and wage or salary-based employment opportunities. Those who choose self-employment opportunities are assisted with market information, access to appropriate technologies, and marketing of their products. For salary-based employment, the job linkage initiative within the framework of the ENRICH program youth development component maintains liaison with different employers and organizes job fairs by bringing potential employers to interact with unemployed youth. Under the ENRICH technical and vocational training policy, various types of skill training are also provided to the youth.

Establish ENRICH Center

UNNAYAN has built some centers in many unions under ENRICH program. These have become very efficient community hubs. The villagers share their various problems, find solutions in togetherness and become mutually benefited. These centers have qualitatively enriched community activities. Members of the community are encouraged to meet and socialize in ENRICH center and undertake joint activities for common welfare. UNNAYAN has established nine ENRICH Center for the community people.

ENRICH Home

ENRICH Home, an innovation of ENRICH program, aimed at making home the source of income generation and asset creation towards poverty alleviation through optimum use of the available resources. The elements that make a home ENRICH Home are: health card, tube well for safe water, hygienic latrine, solar home system or a biogas plant, eco-friendly bandhu chula, environment-friendly fertilizer vermi-compost etc. Economic activities conducted at the homestead include livestock, poultry, and pigeon rearing; cultivation of vegetables and lemon, fruit, and medicinal trees. An ENRICH household consumes, as required; the various items produced at the homestead, and sells the surpluses.

The Social Attributes of ENRICH Home are:

  1. Gender Sensitivity,
  2. Women’s Empowerment,
  3. Free from Early Marriage,
  4. Polygamy and
  5. Child Labor etc.

Currently there are 125 ENRICH Homes in the working area of UNNAYN. The income and wellbeing of these families have increased sustainably.