Nurul Hoque Bulbul
Compassion Takes Action, shortly known as CTA, has been passionately serving humanity since 2018 in the Rohingya Refugee Camp and to the Host Community in Cox’sbazar, a little district town located in the southern part of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a small country of 1,47,570 square km cursed with a huge population of over 200. The common people of maximum parts of the country have been suffering from so many problems to survive. The major problems include lack of education, poverty, unemployment, shortage of shelter, hygiene, wash and sanitation etc. Basically over population has created all the problems in whole Bangladesh. Cox’sbazar is not beyond these curses rather its situation is more complicated that other districts as more than one million Rohingya refugees affect its normal way of life. The Bangalees are so kind hearted that they gave shelter to these endangered community though the Asylum of the Rohingya has added an extra pressure on the lives of local population in Cox’sbazar. During their entrance to Bangldesh, the local people showed unwavering love and affection to them and helped them with urgent place to sleep, food and clothes. Later, many national and international NGO started working for ensuring their basic needs and are still working. CTA is a part of these which has been working in both the Rohingya Refugee Camp and to the Host Community in Cox’sbazar to upgrade the lives of the unprivileged. Choice of CTA to work in this area is one of the best options.
CTA has been able to bring smile to so many families in the rural areas in Cox’sbazar. It has been working in the fields of Livelihood, Quality Education, Shelter for the Homeless, Care for the Orphans, Medical Assistance etc. which really have made positive impacts in the lives of the beneficiaries. I would like to mention some of the major activities that CTA has implemented so far in this area. These below:
Project Shelter: Bangladesh is a flood prone country. According to a statistic, at least 1,00,000 people become homeless due to severe flood ever year across the country. Flood causes river erosion which takes away houses, cultivable land, cattle and even the lives of the people living on the bank of the rivers. These poor and unfortunate people become helpless after losing everything. They need urgent rehabilitation.
The CTA is concern about the sustainable development. The CTA has provided 13 new houses to 13 families in the last three years in Cox’sbazar area. All of them are totally helpless families. Some of them were burnt, some of them were washed away by the flood. Nearly a hundred people have found safe and new shelter through the action taken by the CTA. They are now living happily in their new shelter. They can sleep now in their own house provided by the CTA which help them live upright in the society. Besides this, a great number of people have received house material assistance like Tin and wood through the kind project of the CTA.
Project Livelihood: Unemployment is a great problem for the people of Bangladesh. There are such families of large number where there is no earning person or everyone is jobless. Some families have single earning person who can earn very little which cannot meet up the basic demands of that families. Some families become totally helpless when the only earning person dies. The mothers in these kind of families face real hardship to raise their children, to provide them food and clothing, to send them to the schools and medical facilities as about 90% mothers in Bangladesh are still housewives, not job holders. So, they have to work on other people’s house or in the farm houses. In this crucial situation, the CTA is working with some cases for ensuring employment for the jobless and helpless families in Cox’sbazar. CTA provides training on Tailoring to the widows and helpless women, provides them with sewing machines after the completion of three-month sewing training and some other initial materials to start earning through tailoring. These women are successfully now earning their livelihood and bringing smiles to the families. They are now self-employed through the actions taken by the CTA. Besides this, the CTA provides cattle, goats and chickens to the families who are unable to work physically. Through these initiatives CTA have already made a true difference to the families in need.
Project Education: Education is one of the basic rights that every child should have from their early age. It is such a weapon through which a man can change the world for better living. Bangladesh government provides Free Education (Only Admission Fee and Tuition Fee is free) to its all children in primary school level (Grade-1 to Grade-5). Being a poor and overpopulated country, the government of Bangladesh cannot provide its all poor children free education (even admission fee) in the Secondary or High School Level and University Level. As a result, the poor families cannot send their children to school and colleges due to financial problem, rather they send the boys to work places to earn to support the families. Thus it increases the child labour which snatches away a child’s childhood and dreams. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics – BBS, over the last 10 years the rate of child labour has not decreased rather it has increased. About 4 million children are involved in child labour and more than 1 million of them are involved in highly risky laborious work.
Compassion Takes Action is working with some families in Cox’sbazar to ensure the quality education of the children. Now, five poor university students (Asmaul Tasnim, Somaiya Tasmin Belle, Hamida Akter, Helal Uddin and Mamun) are studying with full financial support of the CTA. They receive a regular money as stipend to meet up their monthly tuition fee, residence fee, teaching materials and meals. They study at different renowned institutions in Bangladesh and are determined to complete their graduation. A college student (Grade-11) named Nasrin has started receiving financial support from CTA this year. Besides, some other secondary students (school level) get one termed educational assistance. Thus CTA contributes to two sectors, one – to ensure education for the poor children, two – to reduce child labour. There are thousands of such poor and potential students in Cox’sbazar area who need financial support to receive education.
Other projects: CTA also responds to emergency needs such as relief food distribution during the disasters to the families in need who have to starve during the flood or other natural disasters. CTA provides medical help to the poor patients, provides warm clothes during the winter season and feeds the orphans occasionally in some of the rural orphanages in Cox’sbazar.
To conclude, CTA has changed the life of thousands of people in the Host Community in Cox’sbazar through the mentioned projects. These projects have been able to create positive impacts in the life of thousands of impoverished people here.
আমরা সংবিধান ও জনমতের প্রতি শ্রদ্ধাশীল। তাই ধর্ম ও রাষ্ট্রবিরোধী এবং উষ্কানীমূলক কোনো বক্তব্য না করার জন্য পাঠকদের অনুরোধ করা হলো। কর্তৃপক্ষ যেকোনো ধরণের আপত্তিকর মন্তব্য মডারেশনের ক্ষমতা রাখেন।
