Four-month Long Sewing Training for 34
Women Completed
11 September 2006 observed a certificate awarding ceremony of 4-month long sewing training at Bangra union, Kalihati, that had started under the initiative of union chairman, Reaz Uddin Ahmed and that has been assisted by LMTC, PRDP-2. Our JOCV member, Kei Umesawa has kept close contact with the trainees and provided them with necessary cloth on loan. Some able trainees already bought their own sewing machines. Most of the trainees were widowed, divorced and hard-core poor women. Altogether 34 trainees sat at the final exam, of whom 13, 14 and 7 participants got first, second and third division, respectively.
Certificate awarding ceremony was held in Bangra Union Parishad Bhabon with the presence of chairman Riaz Uddin Ahmed and secretary Anowar Hossain of Bangra Union, Shaifullahil Azam (UNO, Kalihati), Professor Utagawa, T., (Sociologist, Hokkaido University, Japan), Md. Fazlul Haque (DYD Officer), and from PRDP-2 Mahbubur Rahaman (PD), Yasuko Ose (JICA Expert) and Kei Umesawa (JOCV) and many others.
Poshna Village Changes Day by Day
Poshna VC, which has been formulated back in 2002 under PRDP-1, has organized 80 VC meetings as of June 2006 with active participation of VC members who have always trying to identify problems of the village and take action to overcome the problems. The VC has already implemented para roads repair and construction, school repair and sanitary latrines covering the whole village. In their development activities villagers made. contributions amounting to 68,000 taka while PRDP did 1,96,000 taka. Nation Building Departments (NBDs) provided many useful advice responding to the demand of the villagers. Village women formed a Mohila Boithok (MB) and have participated in the village development work. Many of the visitors including Japanese ODA Monitoring Mission were impressed by active participation of men and women in their own development in Poshna village.
Let's Make Full Use of Notice Boards
Notice Boards remain as the most important media for disseminating information to the villagers in PRDP area even in this age of telecommunication and internet. Newspapers are not available either in remote corners of rural Bangladesh. People relies on this media for their daily needs. Specially, health, family planning, agriculture and current decisions of VCM and UCCM are put up on the notice boards regularly. Occasionally NGOs' information is made available on the boards. While the four old unions have already habituated to share needy information through the boards, the 11 new unions started to erect boards at strategic places such as UP compound, VC meeting place, hat and bazar, busy road intersections and so on. In order to minimize communication gaps regarding development issues, let us make it our habit to put up more attractive and charming bulletins, preferably more colorful posters, on our notice boards.
"Full Birth Registration" Assured at Jagatpur UCCM
At 37th UCCM of Jagatpur Union held on 16 October 2006, "birth registration" was a hot issue. When UP Secretary proposed to let's make the birth registration fully attained, Masimpur VC Chairman Abdul Rahman immediately seconded the secretary by saying "all of the households (pop. 1,847) in my village have already registered their new-born children at UP. Birth registration is important for their future. With their birth registered, children pave the way to get due rights such as education, voter registration and passport issue in future." All of the 8 VC Chairmen who were present at the UCCM shared this idea and told the secretary to give their full support.
Jagatpur UP Budget Made Open
In the process of collecting data and information on UP budget of fiscal 2006, our RS and RA have come across many interesting and "inner" information regarding UP activities. Of the 22 villages in Jagatpur Union, most of the villages are left out of purview of union administration, but when any villages get involved in PRDP activities they come up to front line of development. Jagatpur Union Parishad has a total income of Tk.11,73,200 of which Tk.11,48,200 is used in prescribed programs. The rest goes to VC Schemes.
On the other hand, the RS/RA had shown to the UP Secretary salient features of this union which was indicated in our baseline survey carried out in 2005. At the last UCCM on 29 October 2006, the Secretary reported about this to the participants. We wish this type of exchange of information will lead to a sort of "open budget session" involving not only UCCM attendants but also all those concerned including VC members in the union.
A Typical VC Exchange Program
On 17 October 2006, members of Dakkhindorikandi VC, a newly formulated VC on 8 October 2006, made a visit to Kanainagar VC which has been active since 24 April 2006. Attending a VCM there, members of Dakkhindorikandi VC learned about self-introduction, reading out of resolution of the last VCM, discussion about VC schemes and other village development issues. After the session, all the attendants sit together for lunch. VC members of Dakkhindorikandi were invariably telling that they have learned a lot about how to conduct VC meeting and they will soon apply this experiences back home.
This is a typical setting of PRDP-2 VC Exchange Program which is carefully arranged by the respective UDO/O. We call it "mirror method" in which a newcomer can learn from their more experienced counterpart and at the same time the experienced VC can improve their performance by showing their way of conducting VCM to the outside group.
Health Department Initiates Steps to Eradicating
Filaria
"Filarial (disease) is one of the most common health hazards in Bangladesh", Assistant Health Supervisor of Meherpur Sadar, Abul Bashar warned the participants of the tenth Pirojpur UCCM, and explained causes, diagnosis and consequences of this deadly disease. Filaria has been identified in 23 districts in the country. World Health Organization (WHO) decided to eradicate this disease in the world before 2020. GOB has initiated necessary steps so that Bangladesh will see no more Filaria before 2015. Abul Bashar announced that Health Department will start distributing Filarial vaccine to villagers as from July this year, and asked VC chairmen to take up this issue at the respective VCMs.
Nobel Peace Prize for Dr. Yunus and Grameen
Bank: Its Impacts on RD/LG in Bangladesh
Awaiting for years for Dr. Yunus to be laureated with Nobel Prize, all Bangladeshi people were put in the whirlpool of rejoice and enthusiasm when it was finally realized in the afternoon of 13 October 2006. I was also so delighted that I called up many of my friends to say a word of congratulation as far as I can find their phone numbers in my cell-phone, E-mailed as far as their addresses are available in my computer, and my wife sent this big news to many of her mail-friends in Japan. Though a little overshadowed by the current political turmoil since late October, the Yunus-fever still persists, and it must persist for a long time into future.
In the E-mail conversation with my friends, some development professionals commented that the Prize ought to have been Nobel Economics Prize because by this way Yunus theory and practice might have had larger impacts on changing modern economic theory from the one of free-market economics to more awaited "welfare economics". They have been annoyed by the fact that recently Nobel Economics Prize had been awarded even to economists who advocate not just free-market economy but also even speculative economy. I myself share the idea with commoners that the award must be the "Peace Prize", because this is easier for common Bangladeshi to comprehend, feel more proud of, and make Yunus national and central figure around whom to get themselves united. What was lacking in this country, for many years after Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam, was a central figure to respect with no reservation and condition and around whom people get united for nation building. Now we have Dr. Yunus with us,
Now, the issue of micro-credit. The Yunus's micro-credit system born from the soil of this country has now been accredited afresh and globally. I am afraid, however, telling frankly, all concerned GO/NGO organizations think it granted and re-assured to go with micro-credit. I am in the opinion that all public sector organizations should withdraw from micro-credit, leaving this "business" in the hands of NGO/NPO and similar institutions like Grameen Bank. Many of the departments operating in rural Bangladesh, including BRDB, DYD, Social Services, Ansar VDP, etc. have their respective micro-credit services, but they are sporadic, small and less well-administered. Public sectors do not have enough man-power posted at union level to administer their micro-credit services intensively. Beware that Grameen Bank alone operates their Union Offices with more than several workers posted at each one of them,
Public sectors are suggested to take care of what private sector and NGO/NPO cannot do properly at this moment. They may be policy guidance, coordination of different actors at union level, and very basic services in maintaining law and order, primary education, health care, family planning, social safety-net, and basic agricultural, fishery and veterinary extension services. As long as the country has no intension of establishing the big government, particularly local government, division and share of duties among public, NGO/NPO and civic and private sectors must come up an important and urgent issue to be discussed.
11 September 2006 observed a certificate awarding ceremony of 4-month long sewing training at Bangra union, Kalihati, that had started under the initiative of union chairman, Reaz Uddin Ahmed and that has been assisted by LMTC, PRDP-2. Our JOCV member, Kei Umesawa has kept close contact with the trainees and provided them with necessary cloth on loan. Some able trainees already bought their own sewing machines. Most of the trainees were widowed, divorced and hard-core poor women. Altogether 34 trainees sat at the final exam, of whom 13, 14 and 7 participants got first, second and third division, respectively.
Poshna VC, which has been formulated back in 2002 under PRDP-1, has organized 80 VC meetings as of June 2006 with active participation of VC members who have always trying to identify problems of the village and take action to overcome the problems. The VC has already implemented para roads repair and construction, school repair and sanitary latrines covering the whole village. In their development activities villagers made. contributions amounting to 68,000 taka while PRDP did 1,96,000 taka. Nation Building Departments (NBDs) provided many useful advice responding to the demand of the villagers. Village women formed a Mohila Boithok (MB) and have participated in the village development work. Many of the visitors including Japanese ODA Monitoring Mission were impressed by active participation of men and women in their own development in Poshna village.
Notice Boards remain as the most important media for disseminating information to the villagers in PRDP area even in this age of telecommunication and internet. Newspapers are not available either in remote corners of rural Bangladesh. People relies on this media for their daily needs. Specially, health, family planning, agriculture and current decisions of VCM and UCCM are put up on the notice boards regularly. Occasionally NGOs' information is made available on the boards. While the four old unions have already habituated to share needy information through the boards, the 11 new unions started to erect boards at strategic places such as UP compound, VC meeting place, hat and bazar, busy road intersections and so on. In order to minimize communication gaps regarding development issues, let us make it our habit to put up more attractive and charming bulletins, preferably more colorful posters, on our notice boards. 
At 37th UCCM of Jagatpur Union held on 16 October 2006, "birth registration" was a hot issue. When UP Secretary proposed to let's make the birth registration fully attained, Masimpur VC Chairman Abdul Rahman immediately seconded the secretary by saying "all of the households (pop. 1,847) in my village have already registered their new-born children at UP. Birth registration is important for their future. With their birth registered, children pave the way to get due rights such as education, voter registration and passport issue in future." All of the 8 VC Chairmen who were present at the UCCM shared this idea and told the secretary to give their full support.
In the process of collecting data and information on UP budget of fiscal 2006, our RS and RA have come across many interesting and "inner" information regarding UP activities. Of the 22 villages in Jagatpur Union, most of the villages are left out of purview of union administration, but when any villages get involved in PRDP activities they come up to front line of development. Jagatpur Union Parishad has a total income of Tk.11,73,200 of which Tk.11,48,200 is used in prescribed programs. The rest goes to VC Schemes. 
Awaiting for years for Dr. Yunus to be laureated with Nobel Prize, all Bangladeshi people were put in the whirlpool of rejoice and enthusiasm when it was finally realized in the afternoon of 13 October 2006. I was also so delighted that I called up many of my friends to say a word of congratulation as far as I can find their phone numbers in my cell-phone, E-mailed as far as their addresses are available in my computer, and my wife sent this big news to many of her mail-friends in Japan. Though a little overshadowed by the current political turmoil since late October, the Yunus-fever still persists, and it must persist for a long time into future.
