They could not buy an Old Age Allowance

They could not buy an Old Age Allowance

Old persons shown in above photographs are displaced by the erosion of river Padma.  They are about 150 families; lost their   land and old houses during the period 2007-2011.  Now all of them have made a new settlement near of VORD office; located in Habshpur village of Pangsa Upazila under Rajbari District.    Lose of land and displacement and resettlement of houses severely affected each of the families and Old Persons are most vulnerable. None of these people got any Old Age Allowance. When you will ask them the they will tell   you “as they could not buy the allowance form the UP members so they did not get it.  Yes some people got it who could afford to buy it from the UP member amounting to Taka 2000 to 3000 per registration.  

VORD started to organize older persons  by which they could participate in selection  of Old Age Allowance Recipient  selection   project by which no one had to buy it but  transparent  and just.    

Saleha Begum In Her Age of 70

Time passes by looking into a place of the River Padma where her home and home-land was.  Saleha Begum in her age of 70 memorizes her past; her beloved home where 4 sons, grand sons and daughters were living together. When they were together in home four sons of Saleha could feed and   take care of their widowed mother.   last year mighty Padma has eroded their home and home-land. Three of four sons migrated and become city labourers. Now one son (Abu Salleque) and her old mother are living in a relative’s house. Salleque works as a bonded labourer in other’s house but cannot feed and take care of her mother alone what all 4 bothers could do together. Last year Saleha had Eid together with all sons, daughter in laws, grand sons and daughters but not this year. 3 other sons and their family members could not come back because they don’t have home anymore to stay and celebrate the Eid. When 15 Saleha was married to Solim Mollah; since then 55 years of her life the home she built suddenly took away by the river. In her age of 70 the break of  homes and displacement of her   family members not only created hardship to have her food and other livelihood security but also her mind affected by deep sorrows of missing beloved. Friends of Saleha (as same age as she got) also lost homes and gone elsewhere; she does not have someone to talk to; share her sad feelings. Saleha does not have any idea about what an Old Age Allowance is and what is her rights; whom to claim and how.

During last 5 years only in Habashpur and Bahadurpur unions about 3000 families have been affected and displaced by river erosion. The most affected and vulnerable are the old age male and female. Due to their age, limited mobility and association to raise collective voice tragic problems in the life of old people are not visible to the development actors neither to the politicians. 

 

No denying, some of them are getting   Old Age Allowance 300 Taka (less than 4 US Dollar   a month). There are cases would tell   that elected UP members have taken bribe in selecting OAA recipient.   Although it has been said that as prime rights holder of Old Age Allowance all Old Age person of a ward require to take part in the selection process but in practice no participation.   900 Taka a quarter is little than he/she needs, again it is also a question whether  he/sh could utilize the amount for his/herself or  given to the family.   Health care and access to health care services is almost absent for the old age persons. Feeling of ‘no body cares, disengagement, dishonored and alienation is severe among old age persons. Despite their physical, mental and other vulnerabilities most old age male and female yet does hard work for the need of family.   At the past   Old persons were taken care at the family and community but   due to various socio economic and cultural factors the traditional system is getting weak and weaker. An immediate need is to promote  association of older people and facilitate them to undertake collective actions .

Working Towards Older Persons Wellbeing

During last 5 years in Habashpur and Bahadurpur unions about 3000 families have been affected and displaced by river erosion. The most affected and vulnerable are the old age male and female. There are about 1000 displaced Older male and female in the proposed project   area who are within the age of 65 to 85 commonly suffering from food insecurity, minimum decent living and access to basic old age care. Feeling of ‘no body cares, disengagement, dishonored and alienation is severe among these old age persons. Despite their physical, mental and other vulnerabilities most old age male and female yet does hard work for the need of family. Due to their age, limited mobility and association to raise collective voice tragic problems in the life of old people are not visible to the development actors neither to the politicians. Lack of their own association and awareness to claim their rights to the government is the main issue the project would like to address.

Objectives

 The specific objectives of the VORD's work are:

·         To form village based Older People Association   

·      To facilitate organized older people association to build awareness as well as plan and act for claiming their  rights to the government 

·   To  enhance opportunities for older persons to have basic old age care at families and communities

·         To document practice generated lessons concerning issues of older persons and share those with relevant stakeholders

Appeal to the government and international humanitarian organizations for helping disasater affacted people in VORD's working area

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Since the year 2005 development of Habshpur and Bahdurpur Union where VORD had its intensive programmes have been completely wiped out by the river erosion. Villages which have gone in to river were not just a  char land but the age of civiliztaion was about 400 years .  About  10 villages have completely abolished  by the river Padma. About 3000 families have been displaced  and have taken shelter in neighbouring villages. Thousand acres of fertile agricultural land has been eroded. Displaced families are severly suffering from food crisis, livelihhoods; about 40% student of Habshpur and Bahadurpur primary and high school and Dr. Kazi Motahar Hosain College has dropped out.   The erosion is continuing . Although UN chrater tells " geting help and assitance by the disasater affected people is a human right " but here the affected people of Habashpur and Bahadurpur unions did not yes receive any assitance  either from government agencies or international humanitarian organizations. We  appeale to the goveremnt and all humaniterian organiztaions to come forward and help this affected people. VORD would  like to conduct a particiatory study on the vulnerability and needs of affected people , we would be very greatful if any international organiztaion provide us financial and techncial asitance to conduct a study for developing effective programme of Disasater Risk Reduction .

About VORD

How did it start?

The full name of VORD is “Voluntary Organization for Rural Development”.  In the year 1987, VORD was initiated by a   band of educated youth who were engaged in doing traditional social works.    Gradually in the year 1989   in its journey to provide services in a more effective and efficient manner VORD established itself as a local NGO.

Legal status  

VORD is registered under following government ministries and departments of Bangladesh

·         Department of Social Welfare

·         Ministry of Health and Family Planning

·         Foreign Donation Registration under NGO affairs Bureau

·         Registration  for   the operation of  Micro Credit and Finance

Vision, Theory of change, Mission & Strategy 

Vision: VORD envisions a   society where all members living in peace and harmony in terms of relational, material, and psychological wellbeing.

Theory of change: VORD believe   that the deficit of relational, material and psychological well-being in human society is fundamentally caused by individualistic constructions  which separates self-from others ;      eventually generates greediness thus conflict, dominations and injustice. Further VORD believe that there is no universal, standard and static meaning of well-being     but multiple meanings   are   created by the local social cultures; continuously    constructed and reconstructed though on-going relational interaction processes.  Application of any standard paradigm of development and social change; not only fails to  involve  infinite    and  multiple  relationships in developed analysis and actions but also creates  subject-object relationships between  the communities and the development professionals.   People’s centred development requires a shift in focus from building individual capacities to what we can do together, to genuine participation of the people and interaction, to space for multiplicity, for local creativity and different ways of learning, a learning culture that encourages the community and the change agents/workers to be co-learners and co-constructors, working together towards opening new possibilities. This is only possible through a non subject-object way of relating. Despite talks and emphasis on the principles of participation, most development approaches conceptualize stakeholders as autonomous change entities, so that the unit of analysis and actions are targeted toward those entities. This conceptualization not only establishes subject-object relationship but also promote individualistic construction in which one party tries to promote the independence of another.

VORD put forward that people’s self development cannot be achieved by the thought and  action of others but self-help. Again,   Instead of entities, bringing interaction processes (which construct and reconstruct entities) as both unit of analysis and locus of change is fundamental in the promotion of genuine people’s centered development.

Mission: The mission of VORD is to promote self-help in development and social change through transforming subject-object relational processes into non subject-object.

Strategies: In relation to its mission   VORD applies following strategies:

• Centre   discourse of cooperative  interactions processes as both unit of analysis an locus of social change;
• promotion of positive, local  innovations, and opening up  possibilities
• facilitating participation  and multiple creativity;
•  facilitate local communities and their organizations to manage project cycle by themselves   involving  multi-stakeholders participation process;
• advocating self-help   strategies though networking  and partnership with  other  government and non-governmental organizations/ forums  at  local, national and international

 

Project locations

VORD works in     Pangsa and Kalukahal Upazilla (Sub district)   of Rajbari District  in Bangladesh.  Large  parts of Pangsa and Kalukhali Upzilla is    the   river Padma  basin      and significant portion of population is char ( river bed  ) dwellers.

Staff and volunteers

At present VORD has a total of 33   paid   staff members  and volunteers. As a community based NGO most of its general council members live in project communities and whenever needed and if relevant then individual general members are engaged in voluntary services and provide  their support to  the assigned field staff of VORD.

Governance and Executive Committee Members

VORD has a general council (GC) of 33    members. Although some of the general council members for their work place    live in Dhaka and other cities  of Bangladesh but most   members  are born and brought  up in Rajbari district of Bangladesh .  G.C. meets at least once a year that is called Annual General Meeting (AGM) where they approve annual progress report, annual budget and audit report of the organization. All VORD activities are governed by an Executive Committee (E.C.), elected by the General Committee (G.C.) every after three years. Executive Committee is the sole authority to take executive decisions for the organization, which are being implemented by the Executive Director.  For the period of 2011- 2013, VORD is governed by the following executive members:

Dr. M. A. Mazed (Chairperson): The former Director General of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) ;  presently holding  the position of Director for the  Bangladesh Academy of Sciences. Dr. Mazed is born and brought up in Jaykrishnapur    village of Bahadurpur union of Pangsa Upzilla .
Mr. Fayez Ulla: ( Vice Chair Person)  A retired Head Teacher of Semgram High school  of Bahadurpur Union
Nirmal Kumar Saha ( Treasurer): Head Master, Habashpur, K.B.Raj High School, Habshpur, Pangsa, Rajbari
 Md. Abdur Razzak ( Executive member) :  Former Government Emploiyees , Ministry of Defence, Udaypur, Pangsa, Rajbari
Khan Md. Najib ( Executuive member) : Head Master, Pangsa Jorje High School , Pangsa, Rajbari
Md. Azijul  Haque ( Executive member) : Former Deputy Post Master General  of Bangladesh . Bahadurpur, Pangsa, Rajbari.
Md. Kawsar Uddin ( Executive Member): Market Promotion Executive, Jute Diversification Promotion Center, Dhaka. Bahadurpur, Pangsa, Rajbari.
Mr. Ratul Krishna Halder ( Member Secretary cum Executive Director) : Former ASP of National Security Intelligence  of Bangladesh. Habashpur, Pangsa, Rajbari .

Office and Training Facilities

VORD has two field bases office in each of the Upazillas it works. For the Pangsa Upazilla it maintains a small office in Habashpur village while for Kalukhali Upazilla    another   office in Kalukhali.  Besides these two offices, for conducting training for he community members and leaders VORD has established a   Training Center in   Habashpur Village. The Training center can accommodate about 30 persons in single, double and triple occupancy rooms. The training center has a good training hall training aid and equipments, a separate kitchen and dining room with basic, equipped with the provision of adequate water supply and hygienic sanitation management. Through rural but the   training center offers a pleasant environment for sharing and learning.