Most houses are partitioned inside and grown children live with their families in a different room from their parents. For the most part, however, the same parts of the house are used by all for eating, living and studying.
Recent accomplishments include:
- Distributing stationary to 4,200 students, improving their self-esteem.
- Paying the tuition fees for 3,700 students, enabling the children to continue their education.
- Organizing workshops on disaster management, educating more than 4,000 people on expectations and actions.
- Deworming over 67,000 people, improving their health.
- Providing medical check-ups for 3,600 children, helping to ensure their health.
- Supplying pulse polio drops to more than 37,000 people, protecting their health.
- Providing training materials for tailoring programs, improving the future employment opportunities of over 1,900 people.
Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, is located in the northeastern portion of the Indian subcontinent on the Ganges River delta and is bordered by the Bay of Bengal, India, and Burma.
Agriculture employs 63 percent of the labor force. Crops grown include rice, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco, jute, tea, oilseeds, spices, and fruit. Natural resources include arable land, coal, natural gas, and timber. Severe overpopulation has resulted in inadequate crop production.
In Bangladesh culture, parents often arrange for their daughter to marry when she is very young. She will then live with her husband’s family as she grows up. Typically, her husband is older, and she will never address him by name. Many people in Bangladesh do not know their exact birthday, only an estimate of the date.
Letter writing is not a common practice in Bangladesh. Your sponsored child is probably not used to writing letters, so he or she may require the assistance of a World Vision staff person. If you write a letter, ask your child about household chores or favorite games your child enjoys playing.
Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated and fastest growing countries yet one of the most disaster-prone areas of the world. The country suffers from frequent cyclones and floods that have slowed economic growth for the past three decades.
Currently, 45 percent of people throughout Bangladesh live below the poverty line and 41 percent live on less than $1 per day. Frequent flooding and cyclones, inadequate port facilities, and mismanaged government programs contribute to slow economic growth. The 5-inch rise in sea levels predicted due to global warming has the potential to displace millions of people and place half of the country underwater by 2030.
Through sponsorship, World Vision is partnering with families and communities to help meet immediate needs and promote lasting changes that will strengthen communities and move families toward self-reliance.