BSS, Rangpur :
A high profile delegation of the Department for International Development (DFID) lauded the CLP and PRIME activities those have been changing fortune of thousands of extremely poor in the hardly reachable char areas.
The delegation members exchanged views with the project beneficiaries while visiting remote Char Mudafot Kalikapur village in Chilmari Upazila of Kurigram Sunday to see ongoing activities of the Programmed Initiatives for Monga Eradication (PRIME) and Chars Livelihoods Programme (CLP) projects.
The delegation included country representative of DFID in Bangladesh Ms. Sarah Cooke, Chief Economist of DFID Mr. Stefan Dercon, its Extreme Poverty Team Leader Mr. Graham Gass, Team Leader of Private Sector Ms. Shahnila Azher, Senior Economic Adviser Mr. Stuart Davies.
The delegation members visited market development activities of CLP like milk, meat, fodder project, char business centre and activities of CLP-graduated households those are leading better life winning over the extreme poverty cycle.
They also visited the ongoing activities of the Char Shasthya Karmi and Char Input Dealers in the char village.
CLP Team Leader Mr. Matthew Pritchard and its Livelihoods Coordinator Dr. Mahbub Alam elaborately narrated the ongoing Multi-denominational CLP activities being implemented by RDRS Bangladesh and iDE in remote Char Mudafot Kalikapur village.
The delegation members also visited group discussion meeting, Income Generating Activities (IGA) of PRIME project beneficiaries like perch system goat rearing, model homestead vegetable cultivations, vermi-compost, beef fattening, tailoring and others.
They also observed activities of satellite clinic under the ongoing Primary Health Care Services programme of PRIME.
Deputy Managing Directors of Palli Karmo Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) Mr. Md. Fazlul Kader and Mr. Golam Touhid and General Manager Mr. A Q M Golam Mawla narrated the ongoing activities under PRIME project in the char village.
Activities of CLP and PRIME projects are being implementing by RDRS Bangladesh while the meat and fodder projects are being implemented by the International Development Enterprises (iDE) at Char Mudafot Kalikapur village.
The CLP has been working with the extremely poor have-nots group households living on riverine island chars to improve livelihoods through providing package supports including assets and raising plinths to 1.20 lakh families so far since 2004 in ten northwestern districts.
The UKaid through the DFID and Australian Government through Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) have been funding the CLP under sponsorship of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives with the management through Maxwell Stamp Plc.
The DFID has also been supporting for implementation of the PRIME project both in mainland and char areas to assist the extremely poor people in improving livelihoods and life standard successfully through various income generation and other activities.
According to CLP sources, 900,000 people of 55,000 poorest households were benefited under CLP phase-I during 2004-2010 and another 65,000 out of 75,000 households so far under phase-II (2010-2016) to improve livelihoods of 1.9 million extremely poor char people by 2016.
Both the CLP and PRIME programme have already become milestones in developing fortune of thousands of the extremely poor living in the hardly reachable char areas on the Brahmaputra basin as well as in the mainland in recent years.
Under the comprehensive livelihoods development programmes, thousands of the river-eroded and have-nots group distressed families have achieved self-reliance bidding a permanent good-bye to the century-old seasonal ‘monga’ eradicating abject poverty.
