The women of Lachari Para can give more time in the family than before.

Government of Bangladesh and Asian development bank is implementing CHTRDP-2 project in eight upazila at Khagrachari District. Trinamul Unnayan Sangstha is a local implementing leading partner working jointly with other four local organizations in 200 para/villages at Khagrachari district. Zabarang kalyan Samity is working at 43 paras/villages in Manikchari, Ramgarh & Laxmichari Upazila among them. Lachari Para is one of them in 1 no. Ramgorrh union under the project area. It is located at the border of Bangladesh and India. It is 80 K.M from khagrachari sadar and 26 k.m from Ramagarh Upazila. Due to lack of socio-economic condition in the village and deprived from the first phase of the CHTRDP project, this village is recommended to select for the second phase by the local community leaders and local administrative institutions.

This village is in a hilly area where is 76 HH from Marma community. Along with the male there are 10 female led families in the village. There are total 305 people in which 154 male and 150 female. Most of the community in this village is dependent on agriculture and along with it they are day laborer and rare domestic animal for their livelihood. There are 3 classes of family according to the socioeconomic condition. Middle to higher classes are 06, poor are 25 and the poorest are 46 families. Supports from the Government and non government organizations hardly reached to the community due to remote and border area. Only a para center for pre primary education support for children from the Chittagong hill tracts development board in the village. Due to this sort of situation, there are many problems including the lack of communication, lack of safe drinking water, lack of irrigation channel and agricultural equipment’s for cultivation. It was difficult for the school and college students as well as the pregnant women in the village to take supports from GoB and NGOs, access to local market and the education due to lack of road communication. Safe drinking water was also a

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Villagers collecting water from wells at before

major health problem in the village. Though there were 3 deep tube wells but it was difficult to meet the want of safe drinking water for the huge number of people in the village. They have to depend on the water sources from wells and the river to wash clothes, take bath and the irrigation of cultivable land. So water born diseases like cholera, diarrhea and typhoid breakout every year during the rainy and dry season. Women had to collect water from the long distances which need 30 to 40 minutes additionally from normal. The villagers could cultivate the land in the less area due to not having available shallow pump machine in the village during the dry season. So they don’t get expected crops due to less production from the agriculture. Only 50-60 Aries of rice could produced in a year. The production could not sale in the local market due to bad road communication between the village and the market and the cost of transportation was high and hard.

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Women collecting water from tube well for safe drinking water

Zabarang Kalyan Samity facilitated the community to take project according to the needs assessment. The undertaken projects are shallow tube well, irrigation channel, pump machine, power pump and road construction. Zabarang facilitated to form a Labor contractive society in the village and involved them during the road construction in the village. Total 75 working days in which 10 no. of male and 10 no. female worked during the construction. The labor costs were equally paid to the both male and female labor.

This village is now changed significantly than before while taking several projects for development of the village. Due to installation of sufficient number of deep tube wells in the village, time has been consumed for collecting safe drinking water than before. The women can collect it within 10 minutes while it was required 30-40 minutes more in before. They can give sufficient time in the household as well as to take care of their child which contributed to increase income in the family. Additionally, water born diseases are reduced for using safe drinking water from the tube wells. Installations of irrigation channels and shallow pump machine at the cultivable land and distribution of agricultural equipment’s have created opportunities to cultivate the lands in due time. They can now cultivate it in two seasons and the two seasonal cultivable lands are increased in the village along with it. The villagers use the agricultural equipment’s properly through

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Production of paddy in the field after construction of irrigation cannel

their own management committee regarding it. If they utilize and mange the resources properly they will be benefited in future which will impact to develop their socioeconomic conditions.          .

Monghla para villagers are now more secure with health and foods in the village.

Monghla Para is in the hilly and remote area at Laxmichari upazila in Khagrachari district. Its geographical area is about 360 acr. It is located at 75k.m. long from Khagrachari district at beside the road of Laxmichari upazila. This is an old village where the Marma community has been living from 115 years. Most of the community in the village is less educated and very few are economically solvent among them. There are total 88 no. families in which 06 no. women led families, 22 no. landless and 58 no. familes who have cultivable land. This village is at the most disadvantage area in 1 no. Laxmichari union. So, this village is selected as the most priority basis for the second phase by the local community leaders and local administrative institutions. As the part of social mobilization, Zabarang facilitated the villagers to select some project activities on need basis.

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Villagers used to collect water from well before

The villagers of Monghla para used to collect water from nearby small cannels and wells for their daily use including drinking of water. It was not safe to drink specially at the rainy season. So, they suffered from many water borne diseases and had to spend a lot of money for the treatment of it every year. Even few of them had to take loan from micro finance institutions or had to mortgage the land property to the lender for it. It needed 40-50 minutes to bring water from wells and cannels for the villagers as well. The village women had to engage in collecting water for most of the times rather than involving themselves for very few moments in other domestic work at home.

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Villagers using the safe water for daily use

There were some cultivable lands in the village which were cultivated only once in a year due to not having available advance agriculture machineries and irrigation support. The farmer had to hire pump machine and power tiller from other places with costly price to cultivate their land. Few of them had to lease the land to other as well. So, it didn’t meet all of the food requirements for a year in the village. There was always shortage of foods in the village in every year.

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Villagers cultivating the two seasonal crops with power tiller.

Zabarang mobilized the Monghla para community to take several projects in order to reduce all sorts of problems that exist in the village. The projects are the tube well for safe drinking water, power tiller for cultivation and power pump for irrigation. They have now 4 tube wells for safe drinking water in the village which reduced dependency on cannels and wells at 100%. The family members from 88 households have been ensured safe drinking water through it and changed a positive attitude among the women for using safe drinking water. The women can now involve in more domestic work due to reducing of time in collecting water from nearby tube wells. Moreover, the villagers can also cultivate their land two times in a year with power tiller and power pump. A villager Mr. Aungojai Marma said due to giving water in the crops with power tiller and pump machine production of paddy have increased 11-13 arries more than before in this year. Community people become more aware and producing more vegetables during winter season than before.