Christian Aid Bangladesh organized the close out event of a 3 and half year long project – Empowering Left Behind Minority Communities to Effectively Participate in the Development Process of Bangladesh (ELMC) on recently .
The event portrayed the journey of the project in empowering the minority communities of Bangladesh. The event also shared the collective learnings and best practices of the project by presenting a strategic roadmap for minority rights advocacy. The roadmap emphasized the need for continued advocacy and resource mobilization—funding and programmatic direction—by the policy makers, academicians, govt. officials, donors etc.to build on the project’s foundations.
Christian Aid had been implementing a 42-months project titled ‘Empowering Left Behind Minority Communities to Effectively Participate in the Development Process of Bangladesh (ELMC)’ Co-funded by European Union in partnership with – Bandhu Social Welfare Society, BLAST, Nagorik Uddyog and WAVE Foundation in 8 districts i.e. Rajshahi, Naogoan, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Khulna, Jashore, Satkhira along with Dhaka city. This project aims to directly reach over 600,000 people from the marginalized communities and over 1.8 million people indirectly. The target groups of this project are Dalit, Hijra, Ethnic Minority specifically plainland Adivasi and people with disability (PwD).
Ms. Shaheen Anam,Executive Director,Manusher Jonno Foundation Barrister Shameem Haider Patwary,Former Member of the National Parliament and Advocate Supreme Court of Bangladesh
Ms. Keya Khan-DG, Department of Women Affairs(Grade-Md. Saidur Rahman-DG NGOAB(Grade-
Dr. Gazi Md. Saifuzzaman-DG, Department of Youth Development(Grade-Dr. Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal-DG, Department of Social Services(Grade- Charles Whiteley- Ambassador & Head of Delegation, European Union
Among the distinguished guests present in the event, Shaheen Anam, Executive Director, Manusher Jonno Foundation, strongly voiced about the challenges that the Civil Society Organizations face during NGO Affairs Bureau registration and the need for assistance for these small community-based organizations.
Present at the event, Zakir Hossain, Chief Executive, Nagorik Uddyog mentioned,
We cannot only work for the minority communities rather we need to work with them equally for their rights. Resource empowerment is the true empowerment which we need to ensure for these community.
Keya Khan, DG, Department of Women Affairs, special guest, urged everyone to work together for the minority communities as the Government alone cannot achieve everything. She highlighted few other initiative by the government regarding the issue.
