TRACING BACK 2017-18

Some of the beautiful life-changing stories make us restore our faith in humanity in this fast-moving busy world. And these stories make us shed tears for a different reason - a profound appreciation for the kind things people can do for each other! A few years ago, those who were extreme poor and had been displaced due to recurrent river erosion, have now moved forward and extended their helping hands to stand by the people in need.

July 2017. The enormous flood took away many people’s livelihood, assets - and more importantly, some lost their loved ones. In a horrifying situation like this, things get so ugly that people can only think about the basic needs - food and shelter! Many organisations got involved throughout that time, with their relief works, to help the flood affected population but it takes a lot of time to reach the remote areas - where the damages are worse. When monsoon brought waves of water into the lives of North Bengal’s Chilmari inhabitants, pumpkin producers from the neighbouring towns came forward in support. As people of Chilmari started to suffer due to floods, farmers from the nearby Gangachara and Kaunia donated around 500 pumpkins for the victims of the affected community. It was, undoubtedly, a remarkably unique addition to the relief efforts by Practical Action. It shows us that we don’t need a lot to help others in need.

It was a proud achievement for us because our beneficiaries of Sandbar Cropping are now self-sufficient in some ways and have reached a point where they can help those who needed it the most. Sandbar cropping is a landmark initiative of Practical Action for making transitional barren land productive. This practice enables landless families in Bangladesh to diversify their incomes by growing pumpkins and other high value crops like Zucchini, Capsicum, sunflower etc.

Each year, Bangladesh loses more than 0.7% cultivable land due to unplanned urbanisation, infrastructure development, and population growth. To cater to the needs of the ever-growing population, it is important to explore alternative approaches to agricultural technologies. Every year, about 16 sq km (1600 hectares) of raised riverbed shows up as barren sandbars which could be used for production of crops to meet the food security and nutrition of the population.

The cost benefit ratio for pumpkin cultivation is found to be around 1:5 and it has been observed at least 4 subsequent cycles of sandbar cropping could uplift the extreme poor by stabilising their income from $1.25 to $2.5 per capita per day.

The Agricultural Policy 2018 of MoA referred promotion of sandbar cropping at raised river bed with persuasion by Practical Action over years. Facilitating application of the policy concern will help to ensure food security and nutrition to the deprived community and enhance their income potentials.

This initiative has also played an important role in women empowerment. Due to river erosion in northern Bangladesh, male population often migrate to urban areas, leaving aged people and children behind. As a result, female population are now coming forward to take on agriculture as their profession.

This story of humanity has moved us and we believe our works will continue to empower people and make them able to help themselves and others. Sometimes we find people helping strangers and some people - who just be there - doing simple and caring acts that make a difference. Many of these stories have inspired millions of people and they inspire everyone to do some more acts of kindness.