Significance of the program:
In Bangladesh, 20.5% of the population live below the national poverty line. An estimated 35 percent of the population in rural areas lives below this line. Although there are many causes of poverty in Bangladesh one of the main culprits is gender inequality that prevents women from contributing to the economy.
The expansion of empowerment opportunities for women are regarded as the ones, which enable them to generate awareness in terms of various areas and fields. When they acquire empowerment opportunities, they are able to enrich their lives and sustain their livelihoods better.
Sunny Society, with this anticipation, is working mainly with women at grassroot level from rural areas since 2017 under two major projects to ensure the absolute evolution of the economic condition of the country and their families.
By providing the poor skilled women with necessary equipment and commercializing their hard-work and also by supplying ducklings to different families over different period of time Sunny society has already been able to ensure-
- Income generation
- Entrepreneurship among rural women
- Nutritious health of the poor women and their family members
- Evaluation of traditional practice
- Commercialization of handcraft products
- Halting of the extinction of rural traditional products (e.g., Nakshi kantha, bamboo products etc.)
- Development of their economic condition
- Equal opportunity
- Rural Community Leadership and Engagement
- Economic Independence and Self-Reliance etc. to a great extent.
Over many decades, the UN has made significant progress in advancing gender equality, including through landmark agreements such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and Sustainable Development Goals etc.
The Sustainable Development Agenda 5 aims for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, goal 10 is determined to achieve reduced inequalities.
To attain this sustainable development goal, a collective effort by the government and non-governmental organizations is much crucial.
In this regard, Sunny Society can play an important role with the government to ensure the empowerment of women and proper economic growth through its projects under the “Empowerment and livelihood program”.
Current Projects and Activities:
Sunny Society, starting from 2017 till now, has connected two and a half thousand rural women to economic development through the “Empowerment and Livelihood Program”. In the last 5 years, with the help of 1000 volunteers, it has been able to stand next to about 25000 underprivileged people. Its main activities are conducted in the rural areas of Jessore and Satkhira.
Sunny Society is contributing to help the underpriviledged women to achieve their dream by training them with necessary skills and providing with obligatory elements. In order to work towards achieving the vision Sunny Society set the key activities under two projects:
- Project Campbell duck and
- Project Sailor training
Some of the products that the organization assists in trading are:
Sunny Society provided Campbell ducks to poor families in the rural areas of Jessore. In the meantime, those ducklings have grown up. This organization assists the families in selling the eggs laid by those ducks which is increasing the monthly income of the families.
- Hand-stitched and tailored products:
The rural areas of Jessore and Satkhira are well-renowned for the traditional kantha-stitched work. Sunny society has been ensuring the continuance of this traditional work by rural marginalized women. After the completion of stitching a certain number of fabrics, volunteers set on as channels to sell these products. This way, the poor women are being able to make money and profit by utilizing their skills and becoming economically self-reliant.
Bamboo products are mainly manufactured in the rural areas of Satkhira and Jessore. Bamboo has manifold uses, its low cost making it the primary material for articles of everyday use such as stools, mats, baskets, traps as well as decorative items. Volunteers of this organization collect these products from the trained women and assist in commercializing them in exchange of fair value.
- Trees, vegetables and fruits:
After providing the advanced breed of plants, volunteers of Sunny Society make sure that the beneficiaries are being able to rear them properly and enjoying the result. They also assist in selling those produced items.
Sunny Society has been conducting all of these activities completely voluntarily since a long time so that the poor families in the rural areas can enjoy proper economic development and independence.
