Journey Out of Poverty
Bangladesh, a nation of 140 million, has one of the highest population densities in the world with almost 1,000 people per square kilometer. Many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land.
Ever since its bloody birth in a civil war in 1971, the country’s biggest challenge has been to lift the vast majority out of grinding poverty. Policy makers and development practitioners have long concluded that in order to alleviate the problem, they must focus on educating people so they can be productive members of the work force.
But efforts to provide education to such a high number of people living in rural areas have been stymied by a number of problems, especially poor communication and lack of access to information resources. Nowhere is the problem more acute than in the remote areas of northern Bangladesh. And the problem is exacerbated during the monsoon season—which lasts three to four months—when people remain virtually cut off because of flooded roads.
Since 2002 the plight of a large number of people in the Nandakuja-Atrai-Boral watershed area in north Bengal is being addressed thanks to an innovative boat-based library and education program launched by a local nongovernmental organization.
“If the students cannot come to the school because of poor communication then the school should come to them,” said Abul Hasanat Mohammed Rezwan, executive director of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, which received the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Access to Learning Award in 2005.
Innovation at the Riverbanks
The program, which served about 86,500 families in 2004, covers a radius of 240 kilometers of rivers, streams, and wetlands in northern Bangladesh. The integrated program, which includes a boat library, boat school, and mobile Internet boat unit equipped with computers, mobile phones, multimedia projectors, books, and other information resources, has raised hopes in Singra and adjoining areas.
“Seeing a computer, let alone touching it, was beyond our wildest imagination,” said Abdul Azad, a farmer, flashing a big grin that exposed his betel-stained teeth. Sitting under a mango tree in Kalinagar, a village of 4,500 people, he described the boat program as a godsend because it provides access to agricultural information, including pest management and commodity prices.
Targeting isolated river basin farming communities, the program is using information technology to improve living conditions in this extremely poor country. Mobile Internet-Educational units and libraries placed on boats navigate the Bangladeshi river network delivering information and training to people who are forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land. The computers with Internet are run by solar systems and fuel-efficient generators as the project area has no electricity. According to official statistics, less than 30 percent of the Bangladesh population has access to electricity.
The area is deeply conservative, which means that many parents are reluctant to send their daughters to schools far away from their homes. Through the boat program, girls now can attend school because their parents and guardians can still keep an eye on them.
Seventy percent of the users of the boat program are women. Since they account for half the population in Bangladesh, “there’s no way we can move forward without empowering our womenfolk,” said Rezwan.
On a recent hot, humid day in July, a group of women were attending classes, taking computer lessons, and learning about modern farming and fishing techniques that emphasizes shunning pesticides in order to protect the environment.
Nazma Begum, a mother of two, proudly describes how she has benefited from the program. “I’ve been able to double my yield of eggplants and leafy vegetables in my small backyard,” she exclaimed.
She and others have learned new techniques from Dr. Samajit Pal, an agricultural scientist, who works for the government and volunteers for Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha. Dr. Pal travels about 70 kilometers to the project site every other month. Increasingly, he now addresses many of the farmers’ problems through email, which he receives through the boat Internet unit.
Access for All
Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha plans to use the Access to Learning Award funds to double the existing fleet of 12 boat libraries to address the rising demand in the project area and beyond. The emphasis will be on increasing the number of computers, ensuring a reliable power supply, and providing training for staff.