SUS works with underprivileged and marginalised people, in particular women, children, adolescents and the disabled. It provides education, comprehensive health services, human rights and legal services, micro finance/enterprise and other social services to very poor people in the Netrakona area. SUS believes in community participation and integration and collaborates with governmental and other relevant organisations.
In addition to visiting Mymensingh and Purbodhala we went to Barhatta and Durgapur to see the activities supported by other SUS donors/partners. These visits were useful in providing an all-round view of the work that SUS is involved in. We also visited the Bangladesh Agricultural University in Mymensingh, and talked to some of the professors there about their views on rural development and the situation of the poor in the country as a whole.
We made three separate visits to the Mymensingh Integrated Project. On our first visit we went to an ECD school in the slum area known as 36 Bari, where some of the children sang and danced for us. We then visited a rural area and had a discussion with the head-teacher of the Digarkanda Government School and observed SUS phase out students attending the school. As the Mymensingh project is still in its start-up phase, and the number of SUS schools is limited, SUS encourages the children to continue their education in the government schools. The SUS students tend to be much better prepared and have a higher standard of education than the other students at the school. SUS schools are also limited to 30 students to 1 teacher. The downside with the government schools is that they are grossly overcrowded, with between 50-100 students in any one class (with one teacher), which naturally affects the quality of the education provided there.
We attended an UP SVAW (Regional Stop Violence Against Women) committee meeting. All the committee members are volunteers and are well-known in their own communities. They have been elected to the committee and mainly gather information by knocking on doors and giving ‘awareness-raising’ information to
people in the area. If the identified problems cannot be negotiated or mediated locally the committee members discuss cases with a view to taking alternative and appropriate action at a higher level. The membership of the committee seemed mostly to be made up of men (17) although some women (4) were also involved. During our visit the committee members had a lively discussion about the need for identity cards for house-to-house visits, so that they could display authorisation for their work. We then observed a Health Community Meeting at the 
Bashbari slum and afterwards enjoyed watching a street theatre performance by adolescents from the same slum on the subject of HIV/AIDS and drug addiction – which was well attended by people of all ages from the local area.
Bashbari slum and afterwards enjoyed watching a street theatre performance by adolescents from the same slum on the subject of HIV/AIDS and drug addiction – which was well attended by people of all ages from the local area. On our second visit to Mymensingh we attended a courtyard meeting of pregnant mothers and their mother-in-laws in the Khagdaher area, and had a brief discussion with the mother of a disabled child born with Down’s syndrome. During the meeting the responsible SUS Community Worker talked about disability, displayed picture cards relating to how women could help to prevent problems in their pregnancies and asked the women questions about their own situations. 
Some men and many children stood on the sidelines, listening to what was being said. In this context SUS also trains Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA’s), who visit the mothers-to-be to advise on nutrition, vaccinations, contraception etc and attend the actual births and ensure safe and hygienic conditions. Interestingly, we learned that the Government was also showing TV programmes about similar issues, which helped to consolidate the work. We were told that seven new women had attended today’s courtyard meeting.
Next on our agenda was the District SVAW committee meeting held at the SUS offices in Mymensingh. This 15-strong committee, again made up of volunteers – this time a more representative mixture of men and women – consisted of lawyers, teachers, a journalist, a professional singer, the secretary of a large agricultural concern etc. In June 2009 the committee had produced and finalised its constitutional document. Their activities included a celebration of the International Women’s Day, the celebration of four other special international days as well as visits to schools and colleges to talk about human rights. Part of the committee’s function was to discuss cases of violence against women that came to their notice; six of which had so far been resolved by local mediation and six of which had been referred to the national government legal aid fund. The committee was also in the process of investigating a murder case. The committee’s functions included discussing lawyer support for victims, establishing how to activate the local government aid fund in Mymensingh, offering an advocacy support service twice a month, discussing how to organise the work in the future and how to attract new committee members. The journalist on the committee had also written article in the local and national press to promote the work being undertaken and offered.
After a morning visit to a women’s market in Netrakona (see the description below), our third visit to Mymensingh, consisted of a visit to the Kumar Opendra Bidyapith High School and a discussion with teachers and adolescent students. Some of these students were former dropouts identified by the efforts of the SUS Mymensingh staff. The encouragement they received had made them proud and ambitious students and many have now become ambassadors for SUS work. The headmaster was very enthusiastic about the school’s association with SUS. Some of the children had also tried to make a garden area, but a combination of extremely dry weather and vandalism had put paid to the attempts. Despite this the children were determined to try again.
Next on our agenda was the District SVAW committee meeting held at the SUS offices in Mymensingh. This 15-strong committee, again made up of volunteers – this time a more representative mixture of men and women – consisted of lawyers, teachers, a journalist, a professional singer, the secretary of a large agricultural concern etc. In June 2009 the committee had produced and finalised its constitutional document. Their activities included a celebration of the International Women’s Day, the celebration of four other special international days as well as visits to schools and colleges to talk about human rights. Part of the committee’s function was to discuss cases of violence against women that came to their notice; six of which had so far been resolved by local mediation and six of which had been referred to the national government legal aid fund. The committee was also in the process of investigating a murder case. The committee’s functions included discussing lawyer support for victims, establishing how to activate the local government aid fund in Mymensingh, offering an advocacy support service twice a month, discussing how to organise the work in the future and how to attract new committee members. The journalist on the committee had also written article in the local and national press to promote the work being undertaken and offered.
After a morning visit to a women’s market in Netrakona (see the description below), our third visit to Mymensingh, consisted of a visit to the Kumar Opendra Bidyapith High School and a discussion with teachers and adolescent students. Some of these students were former dropouts identified by the efforts of the SUS Mymensingh staff. The encouragement they received had made them proud and ambitious students and many have now become ambassadors for SUS work. The headmaster was very enthusiastic about the school’s association with SUS. Some of the children had also tried to make a garden area, but a combination of extremely dry weather and vandalism had put paid to the attempts. Despite this the children were determined to try again.
We visited Mohima’s house in another slum area (an ultra poor girl subjected to early marriage whom SUS was helping with education), had a discussion with adolescent girl sewing trainees and attended a final debriefing with all SUS staff at the office in Mymensingh. SUS is currently running 5 adolescent groups in the slum areas of Mymensingh, with 20 girls in each group. Training in sewing skills has been running for 3 months. At the time of our visit the current group of girls had come to the end of their training and were taking a sewing skills examination. In the groups the girls use the REFLECT-graphics method to identify, reflect on and discuss specific issues (e.g. early marriage, dowry, health). The group of girls in focus here had identified the need for skills training in order to generate income – which had then been provided by SUS. During our visit the girls discussed the problem of not having access to sewing machines now that the training had finished and how this might be solved. We asked them for their suggestions to how the problem might be resolved and they came up with the following possibilities: purchase one machine for a cluster of girls; continue the training but make different things; ask the community to contribute 50% of the cost of a sewing machine and SUS provide the other 50%; develop other income-generating skills such as jam making, setting up a beauty parlour etc; try to sell their products abroad. 
In the final debriefing session the SUS staff at Mymensingh outlined a number of problems, including the lack of suitable places to hold meetings and classes and the fact that the aim of providing latrines in each home and the encouragement of vegetable and poultry rearing was not possible due to the lack of land in the slum areas and associated problems with land ownership. The staff also indicated their findings that in terms of the proposed health education on HIV/AIDS, it was actually more appropriate to instruct and highlight Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) instead. One problem here, however, was that SUS staff had no technical training in basic health skills such as taking people’s blood pressure, pregnancy testing, testing for arsenic etc., and that training in such practices was essential. Similarly there was a lack of technical training/support in the field of disability and the provision of peripatetic physiotherapy sessions for sufferers. It was pointed out that as government hospitals don’t cater for disabled people/children the need for such services is great. In terms of community policing we heard from the SUS worker that good relations had been established with the local police with a view to ensuring greater security, law and order. SUS was a member of the Community Policing Forum, which facilitated the work in this field. Work on the formal establishment of the Village Code (a code established in 1976 to ensure law and order and to be operated by local government) in the area was also underway and SUS was putting pressure on the UP to ensure that this was done.
The Mymensingh staff also expressed their hopes and visions for the future of the work, e.g. more therapy for disabled children; the need to produce garments and develop a market outlet; more check-ups for pregnant mothers; the need to expand ECD and NFPE education programmes; the need to involve the mothers of adolescents and encourage income-generating activities and the need for health-related education in schools. Activities were also planned with children’s parents/guardians with a view to reducing the school drop-out rate. Periodical meetings with government school teachers in the slum areas and SUS were also to be developed in an attempt to safeguard the quality of education provided. They also emphasised the need to maintain the quality of SUS services. The aim was also to establish a friendly environment so that deprived girls and boys or those affected by problems related to drugs or corruption would benefit from proper information and training.
Our observations and impressions of the work we had seen was that in only one year the SUS staff have made marvellous efforts to set up and establish an integrated programme of work and are flexible enough to change course to meet the demands of the target groups. They are also a young, dynamic, flexible and very enthusiastic team! From our observations of different meetings we had attended we encouraged the staff to think about providing ‘assertiveness training’ for the women and ‘listening-skills training’ for the men in the various SVAW committees so that the women felt more able to express their views and the men would listen to what the women had to say!
We visited the Purbodhala Integrated Project, now in its phase-out stages. Our first stop was to the SUS primary school in Noapara village.
This was followed by a visit to the Khapara Government School and discussion with teachers and SUS phase out students. We observed a courtyard meeting on disability at Kurpar village and had a discussion with different stakeholders involved in the health project. We also visited a Health Group at Khalishaur village, met the Stop Violence Against Women/Human Rights committee a and had a final debriefing with the SUS staff in Purbodhala.
The Mymensingh staff also expressed their hopes and visions for the future of the work, e.g. more therapy for disabled children; the need to produce garments and develop a market outlet; more check-ups for pregnant mothers; the need to expand ECD and NFPE education programmes; the need to involve the mothers of adolescents and encourage income-generating activities and the need for health-related education in schools. Activities were also planned with children’s parents/guardians with a view to reducing the school drop-out rate. Periodical meetings with government school teachers in the slum areas and SUS were also to be developed in an attempt to safeguard the quality of education provided. They also emphasised the need to maintain the quality of SUS services. The aim was also to establish a friendly environment so that deprived girls and boys or those affected by problems related to drugs or corruption would benefit from proper information and training.
Our observations and impressions of the work we had seen was that in only one year the SUS staff have made marvellous efforts to set up and establish an integrated programme of work and are flexible enough to change course to meet the demands of the target groups. They are also a young, dynamic, flexible and very enthusiastic team! From our observations of different meetings we had attended we encouraged the staff to think about providing ‘assertiveness training’ for the women and ‘listening-skills training’ for the men in the various SVAW committees so that the women felt more able to express their views and the men would listen to what the women had to say!
We visited the Purbodhala Integrated Project, now in its phase-out stages. Our first stop was to the SUS primary school in Noapara village.
This was followed by a visit to the Khapara Government School and discussion with teachers and SUS phase out students. We observed a courtyard meeting on disability at Kurpar village and had a discussion with different stakeholders involved in the health project. We also visited a Health Group at Khalishaur village, met the Stop Violence Against Women/Human Rights committee a and had a final debriefing with the SUS staff in Purbodhala. We were naturally keen to find out how the project phase-out was progressing and whether the local community were taking over various aspects of it as is the aim. In this respect we were particularly pleased to see that the SVAW/Human Rights group was determined to ‘go it alone’ and was in the process of applying for a change of name so that the activities were really ‘theirs’. We were told that the programme in Purbodhala is now more or less 70 percent self-sustainable. SUS is continuing to provide support and is committed to helping to change lifestyles through business innovation and income generation. Community people are taking more responsibility for the work and the aim is for SUS to eventually pull out completely and hand over to local people. Health programme beneficiaries are continuing to receive information and help with family planning methods etc. ECD and NFPE activities still need financial support, however, for an estimated period of 3-5 years. Many of the ECD students are now attending government schools. With regard to the disability project, many people are still unaware of the issues involved. Although links with government resources are being made, this part of the programme would benefit from longer-term support, particularly as the physiotherapy services offered are long- rather than short-term.
On our return from Purbodhala we were invited to attend a meeting of the advocacy panel in Rokeya’s office in Netrakona. Local lawyers provide their services free of charge and meet to decide on action in cases like murder, acid throwing etc. During our attendance the group was hearing evidence from a young girl who had witnessed the death of her mother by her father. We learned that bribery had led to the case being regarded by the authorities as suicide, which was clearly not the truth of the matter. A demonstration in the streets of Netrakona was being planned by the lawyers as a show of strength that the case be properly investigated and tried in a court of law. A further case of acid-throwing and subsequent death was also heard during our attendance at the meeting.
We visited Barhatta, an Integrated Project previously supported by another Swedish group for 4 years, as ‘visitors’ rather than ‘donors’. We went to see the Kandrapara Government School and had a discussion with teachers and SUS phase out students there. We also visited a SUS primary school at Premnagor, met with Government Health Department officials, attended a meeting with Human Rights Committee members, attended a women’s micro-finance group meeting and enjoyed a very well-attended public Community Drama performance on the subject of Stop Violence Against Women (with its anti-corruption sub-plot). With regard to micro-finance/enterprise we were told that some 50-60 villages in the area are involved in the scheme, with 1 group per village. The group we visited now had 27 members (originally 15 members). The groups met once a week and had an issue-based discussion on a subject initiated by themselves.
On our return from Purbodhala we were invited to attend a meeting of the advocacy panel in Rokeya’s office in Netrakona. Local lawyers provide their services free of charge and meet to decide on action in cases like murder, acid throwing etc. During our attendance the group was hearing evidence from a young girl who had witnessed the death of her mother by her father. We learned that bribery had led to the case being regarded by the authorities as suicide, which was clearly not the truth of the matter. A demonstration in the streets of Netrakona was being planned by the lawyers as a show of strength that the case be properly investigated and tried in a court of law. A further case of acid-throwing and subsequent death was also heard during our attendance at the meeting.
We visited Barhatta, an Integrated Project previously supported by another Swedish group for 4 years, as ‘visitors’ rather than ‘donors’. We went to see the Kandrapara Government School and had a discussion with teachers and SUS phase out students there. We also visited a SUS primary school at Premnagor, met with Government Health Department officials, attended a meeting with Human Rights Committee members, attended a women’s micro-finance group meeting and enjoyed a very well-attended public Community Drama performance on the subject of Stop Violence Against Women (with its anti-corruption sub-plot). With regard to micro-finance/enterprise we were told that some 50-60 villages in the area are involved in the scheme, with 1 group per village. The group we visited now had 27 members (originally 15 members). The groups met once a week and had an issue-based discussion on a subject initiated by themselves.
The women were able to borrow between 6,000-12,000 taka to start up e.g. a rickshaw business, a grocery shop, cow rearing etc. Our overall impression was that donor/partner support for a period of only 3 or 4 years is not at all sufficient. In this period of time the project is still establishing itself. Ideally support is recommended for two 3 or 4 year periods (constituting establishment and consolidation) and a further phase-out period. While the SUS personnel at Barhatta were enthusiastic about their work, they were very obviously disappointed by the lack of continuation and stability that a long-term commitment provides.
We also had a day trip north (to the Indian border) to visit the Integrated Food Security for Ultra Poor (IFSUP) Project at Durgapur, supported by a German NGO – the aim being to visit staff at the SUS Area Office in Durgapur and the ethnic Adibashi Cultural Academy/Museum at Birisiri. This museum had been started by the indigenous people of the region with a view to preserving their ethnic cultures. Still in its early stages the museum is involved in the research, recovery and recording of the Atchi language in conjunction with a local cultural anthropologist.
We also had a day trip north (to the Indian border) to visit the Integrated Food Security for Ultra Poor (IFSUP) Project at Durgapur, supported by a German NGO – the aim being to visit staff at the SUS Area Office in Durgapur and the ethnic Adibashi Cultural Academy/Museum at Birisiri. This museum had been started by the indigenous people of the region with a view to preserving their ethnic cultures. Still in its early stages the museum is involved in the research, recovery and recording of the Atchi language in conjunction with a local cultural anthropologist.
We then travelled by boat and rickshaw to visit the IFSUP Nothobia Group in Kullagara and have discussions with group members. This society is matriarchal: in general the women work in the fields and the men stay at home. SUS has used the REFLECT discussion method to highlight different issues and has provided training in management skills, livestock and poultry rearing and husbandry, homestead gardening and sustainability. Group members are able to purchase a specific asset (e.g. a pig, rabbits, poultry, cow, coconuts etc) and learn how to manage and look after it. On the day we visited one of the women’s pigs had died and she was very sad. We were told that an inbuilt ‘insurance policy’ meant that woman would receive a new pig and in this way continue her ‘farming’ activities.
At the Bangladesh Agricultural University at Mymensingh we had frank discussions with some of the professors with specialist interests in farm resource management about some of the problems facing Bangladesh as a whole, mainly due to restrictive World Bank and IMF policies. We were shown round the fruit growing research area at the university. SUS maintains close contacts with the university, with a view to planting resistant fruit tree varieties in the areas in which it works.
As mentioned earlier, we visited a Women’s Market on the outskirts of Netrakona. SUS (with the former help of Action Aid Bangladesh) has provided training for the women in the form of gender awareness, financial and leadership skills. The Market Committee for this area, made up of men, is now supportive of the women’s activities and is helping them get properly established. SUS supports 8 ‘women’s markets’ in the Netrakona area and has successfully lobbied for the women’s ‘safe passage’ home when they close their shops at 7pm (they open at 8am). SUS is hoping to train a woman ‘market manager’ if and when funds for this become available. The women (many of whom are young adolescent girls) sell material and make clothes, primarily local school uniforms. One of the shops serves as a general grocery store and seems to be very popular.
At the Bangladesh Agricultural University at Mymensingh we had frank discussions with some of the professors with specialist interests in farm resource management about some of the problems facing Bangladesh as a whole, mainly due to restrictive World Bank and IMF policies. We were shown round the fruit growing research area at the university. SUS maintains close contacts with the university, with a view to planting resistant fruit tree varieties in the areas in which it works.
As mentioned earlier, we visited a Women’s Market on the outskirts of Netrakona. SUS (with the former help of Action Aid Bangladesh) has provided training for the women in the form of gender awareness, financial and leadership skills. The Market Committee for this area, made up of men, is now supportive of the women’s activities and is helping them get properly established. SUS supports 8 ‘women’s markets’ in the Netrakona area and has successfully lobbied for the women’s ‘safe passage’ home when they close their shops at 7pm (they open at 8am). SUS is hoping to train a woman ‘market manager’ if and when funds for this become available. The women (many of whom are young adolescent girls) sell material and make clothes, primarily local school uniforms. One of the shops serves as a general grocery store and seems to be very popular.
On the car journey to and from the Women’s Market the SUS Coordinator for Community Response in Education (CBE), explained that in 2008 SUS designed a flexible school calendar to take account of the different times that school-aged children are expected to help their parents with the rice harvest and the different periods of flooding when travel to school is limited. They submitted the idea to the Bangladeshi Government. The calendar was adopted by the government in September 2009 and a new education policy declared. CBE also offers regular advocacy training workshops with 20-25 participants at a time. Issues discussed in the workshops include: the definition of advocacy, the definition of lobbying, defining the issues, sharing with the community and the design of a mobilisation programme.To conclude, besides having a favourable impression of SUS work and the Integrated Projects we visited, it was good to see that information boards (in English) detailing the areas of SUS work had been erected in the entrance area of the main office complex in Netrakona and that the courtyard walls had been painted and decorated with relevant ‘quotations’ (in the local language). SUS has also produced a wide selection of information posters that help to draw attention to the interest areas covered. Many of the recommendations listed in the comprehensive evaluation of the organisation, completed last year, have also been adopted. In short, it was clear to us that the SUS core values of quality service, holism/integration, sustainability, people’s participation, human dignity, secularism and gender equality are very visible indeed and that SUS work is highly valued by the local people it serves. Through SUS the poor people of the area really do gain strength to make their voices heard.
