The conclusive meeting of the EVD project
In October we finally held our conclusive meeting with the partners from the EVD project. The reader will come to understand that this was a circumstantial meeting to be organized. It was actually supposed to be held in May, but as we received confirmation for the extension of the project timeline, we decided to hold the meeting in Denmark, to give the partners the opportunity to come and meet us here, after 8 years of work together. This idea had to be brought for clearance with different embassies, so after we had planned and booked everything, only two out of four partners could get their visa on time, so we had to cancel everything at the last minute. On a side note - if you are interested to read more on the difficulties faced by other organizations to get a visa, we warmly suggest this article on Glabalnyt
So we decided to move the conclusive meeting to Bangladesh instead, since it was simply too much of a hassle and a waste of money and time to apply for visas again in Denmark. Hence, in the beginning of October we met with our partners from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Denmark and Bangladesh. Our Indian partner joined online, since they were occupied with some personal obligations at home. It surely was a good trip, with the help of our partner Grameen Shakti, who really looked after us well!
Island visit to Majherchar, 8 hours from Dhaka
We (or else I) had scheduled a busy program from Sunday to Friday, and we started with a project visit to Majhercar, where Grameen Shakti has worked with the project since 2021. We left Dhaka Sunday afternoon and drove south for 5 hours, until we reached Mathbaria, where we spent the night. The day after we continued driving 3 more hours, where we encountered smaller and smaller roads, and many small villages where traffic jams were easily created when we passed by driving our relatively big car and the people in traffic (rickshaws, pedestrians, cars), often drove on the wrong side of the road. Or at least according to our standards :)
To reach Majhercher we had to take a boat. Majhercher is an island along the river Balaswar. Around 200 families live on the island. We were welcomed by a small group of local residents that showed us around and answered all our questions. As residents of an island, people live primarily of fishing and cultivations conducted on the piece of land available to them. The context is highly affected by climate change, and Grameen Shakti has also faced some challenges in relation to finding good solutions that could fit the local context and needs. The locals we talked to were generally very happy with the project, and provided a lot of suggestions about other things that could be done there.
Local solutions
Grameen Shakti worked with the project to strengthen the residents’ resilience to climate change through our EVD concept. Since access to clean drinking water is a big issue on the island, 10 rainwater collection systems with filters were installed, where the local government has followed with the contribution of 100 water tanks. Moreover, Grameen Shakti has worked to install one solar powered water pump with a filter for the local evacuation center.
Furthermore, 75% of the residents have received access to cleaner food making technologies; improved cookstoves which produce lower emissions of harmful particles, use less firewood, and biomass.
In addition, the project implemented the installation of 10 solar powered lamp posts in the village, which provides more safety after dark and 3 solar powered insect catchers, while more than 300 fruit trees were planted, and one family received a solar powered sewing machine, which gave the women of the family an opportunity for better income. Part of our program was also to plant a couple of trees but a massive rainstorm set a stop on that plan. Instead we did a photoshoot that you can see here.
Project meeting in Dhaka
Back in Dhaka, we had four days to discuss the project results, challenges, learnings, and the relevance of the EVD concept. On the last point, we had invited colleagues from other organizations in Bangladesh that work on the same issues as us. We got excellent feedback and a glimpse of the other organization’s focus points, while we considered how to use INFORSE’s platform in the future. The project ends in December and we are fully on board to concretize what we will work on in the nearest future.
