Mission Report to Bangladesh
1 – 5 July 2003
H.E. Ali Ahsan Mohammad Majuheed, Minister of the Ministry of Social Development
The Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD) sent a mission team to Dhaka, Bangladesh from 1-5 July 2003. Through this mission, APCD met with both Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), which APCD successfully identified the Ministry of Social Welfare as APCD's Government focal point in Bangladesh. Prior to this, the APCD mission team met with H.E. Mr. Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, Minister of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh on 2 July 2003.
APCD's mission team visited the National Forum of Organizations Working with the Disabled (NFOWD), which is comprised of 144 NGOs, and were able to gain more knowledge and experience on disability-related concern organizations by meeting representatives of various membership organizations. The team also visited the Society for the Welfare of the Intellectually Disabled (SWID), the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), and Bangladesh National Federation of the Deaf (BNFD), which are organizations for specific types of disability.
The Bangladesh Protibandhi Kallyan Somity (BPKS) is one of the largest organizations of persons with disabilities with approximately 7500 members. BPKS has been developing 15 community-based self-help initiative projects in 15 district areas and promoting more districts to be involved to cover the entire country. In addition to this, the APCD mission team made a field visit to one of the 15 BPKS projects at the Manikganj District, where they met with self-help groups under the Manikganj Disabled Peoples Organization to promote community-based self-help initiatives. The promotion of the community-based self-help initiatives does not only empower persons with disabilities on an independent living basis, but also in income generation of persons with disabilities in the district. Apart from this, BPKS is also training community leaders for other district areas to fulfill most of the district areas. The mission team also met the Deputy Commissioner of the Manikganj District.
Community-based self-help groups are highly promoted by many organizations in Bangladesh. For examples, the Action on Disability and Development (ADD), which trains capable leaders with disabilities for community-based development striving to have 100 projects implemented by the year 2010.
The APCD team also visited the Center for Disability in Development (CDD) which has effective community-based worker training programs for existing community-based development workers in the areas of women, children, aging,poverty, and economic development in order to empower persons with disabilities at the community level. It was very impressive to see how CDD has effectively developed teaching and awareness campaign materials, including picture and cartoon communication, which is effective for directing people who have not had educational opportunities.
