‘Hope, decentralisation, empowerment’ – Muslim Aid UK makes first official visit to Bangladesh since last summer’s popular revolution

Members of the Muslim Aid UK board visited our Bangladesh country office in April to see our work on the ground and to make key contacts within the newly formed government. This was an important step to ensure the continuity of our work and to understand the new government’s humanitarian and development priorities.

Lifting communities

Our first visit was to the Muslim Aid Institute of Technology in Dhaka, the country’s capital and largest city, to speak to staff and students. Over 2,000 young people a year learn to become electricians, car mechanics, graphic designers, and sewing machine operators here.

We provide this training without fees and even give students a monthly stipend to support with travel so they can work themselves out of poverty with dignity. We asked our in country team to consider the feasibility of this.

The next stop was our community hospital in Moulvibazar, Sylhet in north eastern Bangladesh. 55 dedicated staff provide accident and emergency, maternity, diagnostic, screening, surgery, and pharmacy services to a catchment area of 168,000 people.

Back in Dhaka, we met with our Muslim Aid Bangladesh Microfinance subsidiary who provide over £6m GBP worth of micro loans to those in need to start their own businesses and social enterprises, often employing others in their community to lift themselves and others out of poverty.

This was followed by a visit to our own Bangladesh country office to thank our staff and listen to their suggestions for how we could enable them to deliver even more for beneficiaries. They spoke about the desire to have more autonomy to raise their own funds locally through marketing initiatives and to reduce some of the annual reporting burden by moving to multi year budgeting which we were already in the process of doing.

Supporting Rohingya refugees while navigating USAid cuts

We then took the opportunity to meet with the United Nations Resident Coordinator Gwyn Lewis at the UN office in Dhaka.

We discussed the impact of funding cuts from the USA on their work and how we could collaborate to better support the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. They were particularly interested in our work in neighbouring Myanmar, unique as a Muslim-run charity in operating in the country in different forms since 2008.

The Rohingya have almost been forgotten about by the international community due to the multiple other crises that have occurred since their displacement but their situation remains terrible and is with drone attacks now being used as a horrific new tactic against them.

Their plight was also discussed with the humanitarian team we visited at the British High Commission. The UK government remains committed to supporting the Rohingya but we were saddened to hear that the reduction in the overseas aid budget announced earlier this year will mean that support will reduce from next year.

Refreshing government insights

Over the last two days we made a number of visits to various government ministries. We started with the secretary for disaster management who spoke engagingly of the importance of decentralising decision making and funds. This empowers local authorities to act and procure supplies in their local vicinities in the event of flash floods, which have increased significantly in the last three years.

We then met the education secretary to discuss our school renovation programmes. We implement these in consultation with district education officials, where we prioritise the installation of female toilets to ensure girls are able to attend school.

Next was the department for livestock and fisheries, where we presented our very own Muslim Aid shutki (dried fish). This is made and sold by fishermen in the country’s ‘second city’ Chittagong, organically and without the harmful carcinogenic chemicals that some manufacturers use.

The highlight of our government engagement meetings was a visit to the office at the residence of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Professor Mohammed Yunus. We spoke with two of the advisers to Professor Mohammed Yunus about our work in Bangladesh and their vision for renewing the country.

All of the officials we met were experts in their field; many recently appointed from outside government to serve their country. Several spoke of their desire to return to their own vocations rather than staying in office, which was refreshing to hear.

It’s a time of great positivity in Bangladesh and Muslim Aid is proud to have worked here since 1991. We look forward to investing in and strengthening our work here even further in the years to come thanks to the generous support of our donors and partners.