Boxing Day at the Eco-Park

Boxing day also had a unique Bangladeshi tinge to it, but was in contrast a calm and relaxing experience for all the volunteers who went. Arranged by Michael and Philip’s host dad, a group of team 79 were quite spontaneously whipped off to Sitakundu to a beautiful national park. The area, protected by the government and rightfully so was full of towering trees, immense rock faces, flowing waterfalls, but most importantly…silence.

Filled with the sounds of nature instead of car horns or election chants the hills were welcomed by the previously overwhelmed volunteers. We even got the rare opportunity to exercise and felt suddenly in our element scrambling up muddy cliffs, through vertical bamboo forests and battling the jungle as Piers proclaimed it to be!

Photographs just wont do the area justice but heres a little taste;

Christmas in Chittagong

* MERRY CHRISTMAS *

A very belated MERRY CHRISTMAS from Bangladesh! It was perhaps the most surreal christmas we’ve all ever experienced but all the same great fun!

A few of the team began the day with a Church service – the general belief here is that if you’re white and western then you must be Christian and if you don’t believe in God your basically Satan so they fussed over us about Christmas for ages until we gave in, mainly out of curiosity and went to a Catholic Mass, an early start that won’t be forgotten in a hurry.

Next came icecream sundaes and/or cakes in the WellFood (a Western food mall which is fastly becoming a regular hideout) and demanded they played christmas songs to get us in the festive mood which they politely obliged. From there we went onto Foy’s Lake amusement park…We spent the day chilling on a lake in a pedlo, enjoying all the hilarious, completely unsafe rides, walking in the hills or getting wet in the Water Park.

We had our Christmas dinner 250ft in the air in a revolving restaurant which also looked like a health hazard but served something other than curry so was a welcome relief for us all. We sat there in our chirstmas hats, played pass the parcel and swapped our usual xmas day stories…

Chittagong

I don’t know whether we should have expected the second biggest city in Bangladesh to differ much from its first, and i still can’t decide if it does. There are similarities obviously – the car horns screaming, the street children tugging, the faces turning, the rickshaw bells jingling, the dust, the pollution and the sewege but there are also subtle differences.

The streets are thinner and more curved which instills a more natural feel. You can see the sunshine here, and the reduced pollution means increased extremes in temperature from day to night. The curries are spicier, the people more conservative and the accent is even difficult for our Bangladeshis to understand!

A VIVID GCD by GX Team 79

GX team celebration of VIVID GCD

Global Citizenship Day (GCD) is a regular session of Global Xchange program where different global development issues are discussed with the joint collaboration of international volunteers. The 2nd Global Xchange program is on going in Bangladesh running in partnership of British Council, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), YPSA and Nagorik Uddyog.

With this continuation, on the 7th January, 2009, nine British and nine Bangladeshi international Volunteers participated in a GCD with the focal point on “Vision in Volunteering in Interest of Disability (VIVID)”.

Participants took part on discussions on disability from the different socio-economic dimensions. Total session plan covered issues regarding WHO policies & classifications, disability in development from social and cultural phases, PRSP & its relevancy with disability aspect of Bangladesh and a case study of Bangladesh on disability issue. The conveners of the program Muhhammad Umar Khaiyam and Aneirin Wenner conducted training to the Global Xchange volunteers about basic Braille and the international sign language, MAKATON (British originated).

During the program, Chief Executive of YPSA, Md. Arifur Rahman discussed the issue of the Involvement of NGOs on the issue of disability in Chittagong. Also present were Md Mahabubur Rahman (Director of field operation of YPSA), Palash Chowdhury (Director of Finance), Program officer Md Harun, Vhashkar Vhattacharja and the two Global Xchange program supervisors, Saifur Rahman and Becca Thompson.

In one of the sessions, the 18 volunteers planned to take part in a simulation program where they were to practice the guidance techniques of people with visual impairments. The Global Xchange team signed a pledge in Braille declaring that they are alert and compassionate of the rights of people with disability. Md. Arifur Rahman (CE, YPSA) signed the pledge too with GX team in support with this movement.

Pledge writing by CEO of YPSA

At the end of the program journalists from different national and regional daily newspapers were present and exchanged their views with all 18 Bangladeshi and British volunteers.

In Country Orientation – Dhaka

We arrived in Dhaka four days ago and it already a complete blur. Its constantly moving in terms of traffic and incredibly difficult to communicate. The rickshaws are beautifully decorated and need haggling and the UK team are yet to be master such as skill. The team dispersed immediately which really plunged us into the depths of Bangladesh, to spend time with each counterpart’s family or relatives in the city. Most spent two days there and found the experience very insightful and everything fitted into place for all of us. The atmosphere here is amazing, but intense and difficult to accept. While walking through the streets here you will, without fail be looked at by the majority of the population and the British volunteers (minus Sejbob) are followed with the occasional ‘bideshi’ or foreigner everywhere we go…The thick air pollution explains the lack of environmental awareness , and its easy to get lost. Thankfully our teams pretty strong right now and the Bangladeshi counterparts are are taking amazing care of the weaker nationality right now… We’ve started our adventure and it really feels like its going to be an immense one. The issues here seem immeasurable, everywhere you look theres something to see or worry about-tangled wires, street children, unrest situations. We knew it would be different, but none of us imagined it on this scale. We had various meetings with the CMT and for our In Country Orientation discuessed many difficult issues and had indepth debates about honesty, religion and relationships! Our blurry week in Dhaka was emphasised by the upcoming elections and the surrounding posters and marches and as the country gets excited, so do we.

The Journey…

After an unsuspecting tour guide posed as a bus driver and drove us round London on our way to Heathrow, the imminent approach of Bangladesh edged nearer. The plane journey, like any other, consisted of tired faces, packaged food and uncomfortable positions. We left as the soon set, saw it rise in Qatar,  and saw it set again in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Immediately we were met with flowers and greetings from the infamous CMT – Country Management Team – and a few smiling families to greet their long awaited loved ones.

We were quickly piled into taxis and as there are no words to describe the driving here I won’t try.  Like many other things we see here, its incomprehensible how people manage to survive, but all the same we made it to the Bangladesh YWCA in time for tea…

No AIDS, No Cry

No AIDS, No Cry : An HIV/AIDS awareness initiative of GX team 79

HIV/AIDS is the one of the diseases that is yet to be conquered by the present medical science. With that consequence, an estimated 97,423 people were living with HIV in the UK and 12,000 Bangladeshis were living with HIV ( .1% of adult population) at the end of 2008, of whom a third were unaware of their infection. Living with this fact Global Xchange UK – Bangladesh Team took an initiative to make an awareness program in 1^st December in World AIDS day.

Wick Carnegie Library

This HIV/AIDS campeign is started with the slogan No AIDS, No Cry. Team started the promotion, first from Libraries ( i.e. Thurso library , Wick Carnegie Library ) tergeting teenagers and adult . With continuation to that , on their journey from Caithness toward Edinburgh by train in the very next day, they planned to distribute leaflet in different places to aware people about HIV/AIDS.

As the event is recognized as international event by worldaidsday.org and World Aids Campaign, Netherlands; Glasgow based radio station Awaz FM 107.2 and Mtv of UK highlighted this event and gave media coverage by their own medium. As an event organizer of this campaign, Muhhammad Umar Khaiyam is interviewed by the journalist on behalf of GX team 79. World Aids Campaign, with collaboration of UNAIDS and Ford Foundation, provided logistic support by granting toolkits for this campaign.

YMCA

In extension to this campaigning program, GX Team 79 successfully continued awareness agenda in London among China, India, Philippine, Nigeria and South-Africa    global exchange program with UK . with this connection, Indian YMCA, London, facilitated the team to distribute the awareness leaflet and help to know about this more.

Resources

Useful links to know more about it

http://www2.mtv.co.uk/channel/mtvuk/news/464678-world-aids-day

http://www.worldaidsday.org/Events/Events-listings/02-Dec-2008/No-AIDS—no-cry.aspx

http://www.worldaidscampaign.org/en/Key-events/World-AIDS-Day/World-AIDS-Day-2008/WAD-2008-Events-Calendar/No-AIDS-no-cry

www.ypsa.org

Campaign Publicity in Radio

http://www.ypsa.org/multimedia/interview%20of%20Md%20Umar%20in%20Radio%20awaZ,%20No%20AIDS,%20No%20cry%20Campaign.mp3

Campaign Leaflet

http://www.ypsa.org/doc/No%20AIDS%20no%20CRY.pdf

Last Night Out…

Fun Day in Wick brought christmas carols in the square, searches for santa in Weatherspoons, Mrs Claus and her bouncing boobs and an abundance of chirstmas lights and festive cheer. Free chocolates in all the shops, alongside pipe bands and carols blasting through out the Christmas market helped the volunteers quickly get into the chirstmas spirit that we’ll miss when we’re gone.

Caithness is home to two nightclubs, both of which can charge extortionate prices due to their isolated location and dominance of the area. Therefore, on our limited budget, it was feared the Bangladeshi volunteers would never get to experience which was something they so greatly wanted to see. After several generous donations from locals, however, we all dressed up in our gladrags to enjoy a night out in Wick’s Waterfront!

A meal of crisps and choloate infront of the X-factor contrasted with the music and atmosphere of the nightclub and the team danced away together until the early hours of the morning. For some it was their first taste of alcohol, for others their last for at least 3 months and it was an interesting experience for all the team.

Community Farewell

We’ve reached the end of our time in Caithness and amongst tears and memories, in true team 79 style there will always be a celebration. The organising was stressful, but in the end it turned out a success!

The event was held at Thurso Youth Club (where Bridget and Sampa worked a couple of days a week) and involved, music, food, poetry and dancing. The Bangladeshis took to the make-shift stage with tradional singing and dancing which was much appreciated. The decorations were beautiful and the food delicious. A very generous raffle generated even more money for our community work in Bangladesh and drink donations kept the glasses overflowing. There was even a christmas carol to get in true festive spirit! While swallowing some embarressment, everyone enjoyed the presentation Bridget had prepared which generated much laughter.

We want to thank everyone there, but also those who couldn’t make it, for really making our time in Caithness possible and enjoyable. We all have so many memories that will stay with us forever…THANKYOU!

Fundraising for Street Children

Fundraising for Street Children

Volunteers from the Global Xchange Programme have arranged a discussion session on the street children issues in Bangladesh in MacKay’s Hotel on the 26^th November. Two hour-long program-featured speeches of the guests, presentation on development issues with the special emphasize on street children. All the members of the Rotary Club were present in the discussion session.

Tahrima Khan Tonni, Sejal Vora, Bilkis Rumman Ety, and Muhhammad Umar Khayiam have done some resourceful presentation, which stirred all of the audience.  The main aim of the discussion was to promote a platform for co-operation between the Global Xchange volunteers and the local community. It was also an attempt to share information on community development issues and to create a bridge between Chittagong and Caithness. 

The discussion thus provided an occasion to foster closer co-operation and better understanding on the community development issues. All the participants have shown sheer enthusiasm to contribute to the street children in Bangladesh.

After the discussion volunteers arranged an attractive raffle draw to raise some funds for the street children in Bangladesh. Wholehearted participation of the Rotary Club inspired the volunteers to take more initiative of fundraising on this issue.  

The discussion was presided over by Jan Banks, the president of the Wick Rotary Club. The journey then took the volunteers to the Rotary Club in Thurso and generous donations were given by all. Further fundraising by Liton at Pulteney Town Peoples Project and at the team’s Community Farewell has proved just how generous the people of Caithness can be. We thank everyone who donated to the fund as you’ve given us the opportunity to really make a difference to the street children of bangladesh through planned workshops and activities that aim to give them worthwhile skills that will help them in the future. In total, over £500 was raised and this will go a long long way in Bangladesh. More information on our progress will be added when it happens…