BSS :
Nearly 3,500 underprivileged families having around 14,000 populations became self-reliant taking new own methods and ideas like poultry rearing and farming to earn the money in the region.
They took different initiatives to overcome their long-lasting extreme poverty using their natural resources.
Reshma Begum, 30, wife of Abdur Rouf of Parmohanghosh village under Atrai Upazila in Naogaon district, was provided an asset valuing Taka 21,000. But, around four years back, she had lost most of her belongings in a devastating flood. The financial support by a project and her relentless efforts contributed a lot to reviving their livelihood from a worst situation. Panna Begum, 40, is rearing nine sheep and seven hens and ducks valued at Taka 24,700 enabling her painstaking efforts to improve their living and livelihood condition.
She is happy with her income-generating activities saying her level of confidence has enhanced to a greater extent.
Begum, wife of Dulal Hossain in Chalk Boloram village under Raninagar Upazila under the same district, received two sheep, one hen and other rearing accessories worth Taka 9,000 from a recently phased-out anti-poverty project in 2019.
A total of 1,600 families in 43 villages under the two flood-affected upazilas received productive resources worth Taka 9,000 each under the ‘Strengthening of resilience and adaptability to climate change in north Bangladesh (REAP) Project’.
In 2020, five consecutive floods drove people of the two upazilas into a state of despair.
The beneficiaries invested the capital in various income generating activities creating diversified, climate-resilient and disaster-proof earning opportunities.
Anwara Begum, 50, of Paikara village in Atrai Upazila, said her low lying fields and crops were badly damaged by floodwater in 2020. So the following year, she raised the level of her cultivated land to mitigate the effect of the floodwater. She also uses organic fertilizer to reduce production costs besides protecting the environment.
