Staff Reporter :
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in collaboration with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) helped over 30,000 people in urban areas of Chittagong Hill Tracts with cash grants of BDT 4,500 each.
The 30,000 people are from 6,000 families in the district.
The payment was given between May 19 and 24 to improve the beneficiaries’ food consumption, said the ICRC in a statement on Saturday. As the Covid-19 pandemic continues unabated, many people, especially of CHT communities, are facing acute food shortages due to lack of work. The communities in dire need require assistance to cope with the ever-changing situation, ICRC said.
Explaining the objective of this cash support program, MA Halim, community development Director of BDRCS, said, “We are targeting families whose members tested positive to Covid-19, households depending on daily wages, families with no access to income, women-headed households and persons with disabilities to meet their basic food and non-food needs.”
Such assistance will have an improved impact on their dietary diversity and help restore the food consumption in quantity and quality while covering their other basic needs, he said.
Besides this support, Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachari district prisons have received hygiene items to tackle the spread of coronavirus among the prison inmates, including both for detainees and prison staffers alike.
The BDRCS volunteers continue to assist the district detention authority to implement the Infection Prevention and Control measures.
Besides, food parcels were distributed to 3,000 families in the three CHT districts covering seven days of need, implemented by the BDRCS with the financial support from ICRC.
Preventive audio messaging on Covid-19 continues to be sent to more than 200 community leaders across the CHT region, while such messages in the form of leaflets have further been shared during the cash distribution.
The ICRC, in partnership with the BDRCS, has been implementing community-based livelihood support programs since 2014.
