Tk 100cr project for Aila-hit people soon
A consortium of international NGOs has initiated a Tk 100 crore project to improve food security and livelihoods of over two lakh people in Khulna and Satkhira affected by the cyclone Aila two years back.
European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) is funding the seven-month project that will be shortly inaugurated by Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzaque in Khulna.
Officials of these NGOs announced it at a press conference at Oxfam office in the city. This comes when the Water Development Board finally has repaired all broken embankments, except one in Khulna, and the last victims, living on the embankments since the cyclone, are returning to their homes.
The agencies -- Action Aid, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief and Oxfam -- the members of National Alliance for Risk Reduction and Response Initiatives (NARRI) in partnership with CARE and Solidarities International will implement the project.
The project titled "Emergency Food Security and Livelihood Support in the Cyclone Aila-affected region in Bangladesh" will engage 42,250 households in cash for work activities for 30 days.
During this time, they will create community infrastructures like ponds for drinking water, roads and canals and plinth raising, said Oxfam's Bangladesh Country Director Gareth Price-Jones.
At least 10,326 small landowners and sharecroppers will be provided with Tk 8,000 each as agricultural grants to restart their farm production, while 2,000 households mostly headed by disadvantaged women, widows and challenged will receive unconditional cash grants of Tk 5,000 each.
Around 42,250 households will be engaged in cash for training, which will help them enhance their awareness about disaster risk reduction, water and sanitation, nutrition and childcare. Each of these households will be provided with grant of Tk 3,000, said the Oxfam head.
The project complement the government's on-going assistance for Aila-hit people, rather than replacing it, he said, adding that these efforts will help them get on their feet.
Partha Hefaz Shaikh, head of food right and sustainable livelihood programme of ActionAid Bangladesh, said almost all who previously cultivated prawn fish now want to go back to rice cultivation.
Aman season is approaching and if the farmers are helped in their efforts to product rice, they would recover their livelihood. Aman cultivation is possible as salinity in soil is declining with the rains, he noted.
Solidarities International's head of mission Helen Juillard, Oxfam Humanitarian Programme Coordinator Kaiser Rejve and its media and communication coordinator Mubashar Hasan also spoke.
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