Despite the inundations in Dhaka last week, I managed to reach the city for the weekend. The situation was quite impressive. At one point Dhaka experienced a rainfall of 290 mm in six hours; a record for the capital in 60 years! Most parts of the city were under water, often knee or waist deep. Not surprisingly, this had a major effect on life and trade. At least 8 people were killed and many injured as they stepped on snapped power cables. Telephone lines were also damaged and many families spend their days and nights protecting their homes and belongings against the raising water. Trade also came to a halt as most shops and markets in the affected areas remained closed. Luckily it was not all negative, as many people also managed to turn this experience into a positive one. People were for example fishing in downtown Dhaka; a rather strange sight one can imagine! And as most schools remained closed, many children enjoyed their days off playing in the water. The high levels of water also meant big business for rickshaw pullers and owners of horse and carriages, as baby taxi’s and other motorized vehicles could not enter many parts of the city. They often charged many times the usual fares. For farmers all over the country the heavy rains provided a relief after the long dry spells, which – according to newspapers – were bordering on drought.

After a short weekend in Dhaka I returned to Noakhali, this time accompanied by Farhana - my interpreter. It took quite some time and effort finding a female interpreter, but thanks to some helpful people we managed to do so. I considered it very important for my field work to work with a woman, as I would be speaking primarily with women and in the Bangladeshi social context it is often considered inappropriate for them to speak with men from outside their family. Farhana proved to be very suitable for the job, as not only her English was good but she also recently graduated as an Anthropologist and had some experience in gender research.

During the first week of fieldwork I met with the representatives of BRAC and the five local NGO’s that work in the project area. BRAC is the largest NGO in Bangladesh and currently coordinates the activities of the five local NGO’s in Boyer Char. The objective of the NGO program is to develop human capacity and generate income in order to eradicate poverty and social inequality. To do so, attention is paid to nine different sector programs:
(1) Group formation and savings management
(2) Health and family planning program
(3) Human rights and legal education program
(4) ‘Polli Samaj’
(5) Poultry and livestock program
(6) Social forestry program
(7) Homestead crop cultivation program
(8) Disaster management program
(9) Water and sanitation program
NGO groups are formed – existing solely of women - and through these groups the NGO’s provide services to the people. NGO group members f.e. start a saving scheme and receive micro credit loans. Furthermore, local women are trained as community health workers and contraceptives are provided to keep family size small. The Human rights and legal education program focuses on awareness raising about human rights and issues such as dowry, early marriages, multiple marriages and women’s rights. The poultry and livestock program trains women on modern poultry, goat and cow rearing and their treatment. Furthermore, group members receive hybrid birds to increase their income-earning activities and some are trained as poultry workers to vaccinate poultry birds against the most common diseases. The homestead crop cultivation program trains women on modern cultivation and provides them with inputs like seeds and fertilizer to increase agricultural production and combat malnutrition. The most important activities of the water and sanitation program are the provision of safe drinking water and sanitary latrines. Local communities are also educated on hygiene related issues, in order to prevent common diseases like diarrhea.
These are just a few examples of the many activities and good work of the NGO’s in the CDSP-III area. NGO activities have a significant gender component, as they work exclusively with women and strongly focus on the improvement of the situation and position of women folk.

Besides meeting with the representatives of the NGO’s, I also spoke with female NGO field workers. This was a very interesting and useful meeting, as they highlighted the most important problems women face, shared their personal experiences from the field and provided me with a good idea of the accomplishments of CDSP-III and the NGO’s over the past years.
Especially pressing are the high levels of violence – physical, mental and sexual - against women, often by their husbands and in-laws. Although this did not surprise me (every day one can find articles in the newspaper about the torture and killing of women – as I am writing my blog I read about a young woman who was subjected to medieval-style torture by her husband, being chained up by her waist, neck and legs for weeks…), the incidence of violence did truly shock me. When asking the NGO workers how many women more or less experienced violence before the start of the project, they all agreed that it came close to 100%. Luckily these numbers have gone down significantly in recent years. According to the NGO workers this is the result of women’s empowerment and increased awareness - accomplished by project intervention.
Other important issues are women’s lack/complete absence of economic decision-making power and their often extremely limited mobility. Because of the rules of ‘Purdah’ (which literally means ‘veil’ or curtain’, but generally refers to the range of practices in response to the Koran to guard women’s modesty and purity) women are usually not allowed to go outside the house. If they do however, they need to wear a burqa that covers their body from head to toe, which the exception of a small split through which they can see. The formation of NGO groups, the need to attend NGO group meetings on a regular basis and women’s empowerment (economic as well as social) have fortunately significantly increased – among other things - women’s mobility and their economic decision-making power. It has also contributed to a strong and increased solidarity between women, as they now have a bigger and stronger social network which provides them with help and support in times of hardship (especially in the case of violence or economic problems).

Besides these highly interesting meetings, I also held a spontaneous court yard meeting. This proved to be so much easier than I expected. Because people are so grateful for the project and there exists a lot of trust and confidence towards anything that has to do with CDSP, I always received a warm welcome - which was absolutely great. You basically walk up to a house and within no time 20 or 30 (if not more!) women are gathered and eager to talk to you. I used this opportunity to let the women raise the most important issues themselves, without interfering too much. This way I got a good idea of their priorities, concerns and struggles. Again the topic of violence proved to be an important one, just as their children’s education, health care and the need for income-earning activities.

I also attended the annual meetings of two Water Management Organizations (WMO’s) and afterwards spoke with the female members of these WMO’s. Another one of my activities this week was a discussion with an NGO group. However, I will tell more about these meetings in my upcoming blogs!

At the end of this week my interpreter unfortunately had to resign, due to some personal problems. However, she was friendly enough to help me find another female interpreter – Anandita. She is also an Anthropology student and – like Farhana - proved to be great company and a valuable support during my fieldwork.