The Dhaka Project

Introduction

Welcome to The Dhaka Project website. For those of you who know little
or nothing about us, let us start by introducing ourselves and our work.We run a non profit project that works to provide much needed support to
poor families and their children in Dhaka. We believe it is humanitarian effort and we aim to:

* Provide training to the adult members of families, to overcome poverty and become self-sufficient Educate the children to give
them opportunities in the future previously not available.
* To give short-term aid in terms of clothing, food and medical aid while the families are learning.

In short, the objective is to bring new sources of income to some of Bangladesh’s poorest people. The emphasis is placed on supporting sustainable development, particularly with children. At to support local economy and longevity of the work, we use local resources where ever possible. Maria Conceicao, the founding member, scoped the project out
in April 2005 and it was officially launched in July 2005. Since this time
she has been joined by a dedicated locally employed team and volunteers from Bangladesh and the world over, who believe in this cause as much
as she does. So how to do you take steps to help the social and intellectual development of some of the poorest Bangladeshi population? Though
we do many things, as this is your introduction, we will try and focus on
three of the key attributes to our work:

* Children’s education development

The children are selected from low productivity – low income families living in slum areas. The programme caters to children aged 4
and above providing them with education and supporting their
daily basic needs such as food, school uniforms, books, stationery material, rain coats, shoes, socks and toiletries.

* Womens skills development programme

The women’s programme involves training in tailoring, beauty, English and the fabrication of handicrafts. The ladies are
provided with a daily meal, stipend salary, tailoring training and
raw materials. Courses last between three and six duration
(9 am – 5 pm) and on completions they are transferred in to
awaiting job vacancies. In order to help the women focus on learning their skills effectively and in a timely manner, a pre-school /day
care facility is offered for all of the participants’ children.

* Men’s skills development programme

The men are admitted in a driving school and undertake English classes. In addition, the project has recently purchased a small
fleet of Rickshaws which the men may rent out to earn
supplementary earnings.

As for the women, job vacancies are carefully secured for their fulfilling on completion of their training.

In order to do these activities and to support suitable employability,
hygiene, medical and welfare needs have to be addressed.