Faith Based Approach to HIV/AIDS Prevention

Leaders of Influence (LOI)

Leaders of Influence (LOI) program is an initiative of USAID and the Asia Foundation. Through this program USAID/Bangladesh seeks to support and expand USAID’s current program by engaging and exposing leaders of influence such as lawyers, religious leaders, interfaith leaders, Imam and khatibs, mosque committee members and youth leaders to modern practices of development and democracy with the overall objective of promoting values of tolerance, diversity, communal harmony, peace and understanding in Bangladesh society. Masjid Council works with the Asia Foundation to organize and conduct orientation for the interfaith leaders and the mosque committee members across the country. In 2009 Masjid Council carried out a two-fold job: (i) organizing Interfaith orientation programs; and (ii) organizing orientation sessions for the mosque committee members. A total of 409 interfaith leaders, including 68 women, was oriented in Mymensingh, Chittagong, Dinajpur and Faridpur regions. A total of 201 mosque committee members was provided with orientation. Four orientation sessions were arranged in Cox’s Bazar, Kushtia, Madaripur and Dhaka region. Two-day orientation programs were organized in accordance with the Foundation’s prescribed design featuring topics and themes of particular interest to Masjid Council as well as general exposure to sectoral development topics. Each program included a visit to USAID-funded project site. Participants were selected in line with the program mandate, approximate proportion of population by faiths, regional context, and availability of faith leaders.

BRAC WASH Program

Flu Prevention Program

Considering the potential danger of various types of flues, UNICEF and Masjid Council developed a partnership agreement to undertake a pilot project on prevention of flu through creating awareness by Muslim religious leaders among the people of the Kurigram district. The project lasted from July to December 2009. The goal of the project was to reduce the risk of flues for the people of Kurigram district through awareness campaigning. Specific objectives were:

1. To disseminate basic knowledge on flues among the target people
2. To provide them with standard personal hygiene knowledge and skills   
3. To make people confident that flues can be prevented if some primary precautionary measures are taken

Mosque based Education

The socio-economic reality of the country sometimes compels some of the guardians of rural areas not to send their wards to school. Considering the need for a future educated vanguard and to support the MDG efforts of the government, Masjid Council initiated a project for youngsters of 6-10 years who either could not attend school or were dropped out at early stages. The learners are provided with formal education texts such as Bengali, English and Math. In order to promote the morality of the learners they are also given some religious teachings. The duration of the course is three years. The Imams act as the teachers of the centers and local mosques are used as learning centers. Upon completion of this three-year course, the learners join standard III of mainstream education system. The project currently operates 3 centers having involved 125 learners. Gender parity in enrollment is strictly maintained. Earlier a total of about 4,000 boys and girls have been graduated and nine-tenths of them were able to join formal education either in school and madrasah.

Masjid Council has undertaken a project titled, “Skill Development and Self Employment Program for the Rural Women” at Char Ajodhya (Teledangi) village of Char Bhadrashan Upazilla under Faridpur district to improve skills of the women of the project area and provide them with the opportunity of income generation. The project is being implemented by Nobonita Unnayan Sangshtha (NUS), a not-for-profit organization works as a catalyst for the betterment of the poor and underprivileged by utilizing the local and national resources. NUS is registered with the Social Welfare Affairs department and started its interventions in 2006. NUS assists its beneficiaries towards improvement of the quality of living status providing education, primary healthcare, nutrition, sanitation, handicrafts, fish culture, women and children rights and income generation programs with a comprehensive approach. Masjid Council provides financial and technical support while NUS is responsible for implementation of the project. The project designed and organized 7 categories of training for the women. A total of 175 women attended the training courses in 9 batches. The participants were provided with basic input support (e.g., honey box in case of bee keeping). The trained women underwent refreshers’ training in 2010 in order to boost up their confidence and make them contribute to their families. Besides, a plan is underway to develop a marketing channel in association with the implementing agency, so the product developed by the beneficiaries could be marketed easily and the beneficiaries get maximum benefit out of their products (e.g., clothes, honey etc).

Pure Drinking Water Supply Project

Access to clean water is a basic human right, and an essential step towards improving living standards worldwide. Water-poor communities are typically economically poor as well. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), distribution systems should make drinking water available so that people do not need to travel more than one kilometer from the place where they use the water. Masjid ouncil
initiated the project in 2005 at Darogram village with partial support from the World Bank (through Social Development Foundation). The village Darogram is located at about 70 km west of Dhaka city, under Saturia Upazila of Manikgonj district. Having a total population of about 6000, the village is characterized by average family size of 5.12 with 26 (3.47%) vulnerable households; the occupation of the villagers is diversified including farming (37%), trade and business (37%), service holders (13%). It was found that the underground water of the locality was contaminated with Arsenic and Iron prior to introducing the project; therefore most of them expressed their willingness to be a member of the drinking water supply network. Masjid Council mobilized construction phase program from its existing office at Darogram. To enhance its capacity for technical supervision, Ensuring Safe Drinking Water 29 necessary technical staff members were recruited and stationed at Darogram. During construction phase, contractors were engaged for drilling, and other civil and mechanical works. Besides, technical supervision and certification and quantification of works were ensured by SDF design team periodically to ensure quality testing of materials, construction works etc.

Masjid Council is responsible for operation and maintenance of the water supply system as per its agreement administered with each individual consumer. The conditions of consumer agreement prescribe the responsibilities and obligations of Masjid Council and the beneficiaries. To establish transparency in operation, it has identified a committee of 5 members, a representative body among the households to ensure tariff collection and monitoring water loss from taps at user level. This committee also reviews the tariff collection periodically. It is agreed that it would continue operation and maintenance of the system for a period of 15 years. Masjid Council’s contractual obligations include managing the personnel, discretion for procurement of materials, labor, goods and services needed for efficient operation and maintenance of the water supply system. Additionally it performs the responsibility of setting tariff, billing and collection of water tariff etc. through consultative process with the community during operation phase. So far it managed to successfully complete all activities under ‘construction’ and ‘operation’ phase. Currently there are more than 450 families connected with the system out of a targeted number of 500.