Char dwellers turn around after devastating flood in Kurigram

Kurigram Correspondent :
A welfare project entitled Assistance for Sustainable Development (ASD) under Climate Action sector is being implemented for 7 hundred 50 char dwellers in Sadar, Chilmari and Rowmari Upazilas under Kurigram district since 2017.
With the financial assistance of Friendship Luxembourg, Friendship, a non-government organization of the country, is implementing the project designed for five years for the underprivileged and disadvantaged char dwellers of the Upazilas aimed at improving their living standard for making them self-dependent economically along with ensuring equal dignity through providing them with season- wise good seed of various vegetables and sheep. Apart from it, to ensure good governance among the char dwellers and to eradicate social problems like child Marriage, domestic violence side by side with building their capacity on facing natural disasters are also the objectives of the project, said Project Manager Kbd. Md. Ashraful Islam Mollick.
The beneficiaries started changing their socio-economic condition by sheep rearing and vegetables farming. Anjuman Ara Begum,a beneficiary woman of Sadar Upazila,said like other beneficiaries, she received a sheep worth TK 3thousand 600 and seed of vegetable of sixteen varieties from the project. After rearing the sheep on the char land and the farming vegetable on the homestead, the number of sheep has increased, and the vegetable farming is also extended at the homestead at larger scale.
Now, the price of sheep has stood at Tk 28 thousand.She also earned Tk 24thousand money through selling vegetables in local markets after meeting the family demand. The earned money helps her bear the family expense without economic trouble during the hard and critical times.
With this income, Anjuman Ara also purchased a goat worth Tk 5 thousand and participate to repair a road in her village for smooth movement on the rural road.Earlier, the beneficiaries were imparted need-based training successfully on sheep rearing and vegetable farming before engaging them in income-generating activities at the initiative of the project Mollick further said, As the lots of the beneficiaries had been changed significantly, they also expressed their gratefulness to the organization and its welfare project including the concerned officials and staff for standing beside them with sheep and vegetable seeds.