BRAC

Published purpose

P006681001: This project provides comprehensive livelihood support for communities, particularly women, girls and young adolescents, living in the host communities affected by the influx of over 740,000 displaced Rohingya people in Cox’s Bazar since August 2017. Cox’s Bazar is one of Bangladesh’s poorest and most vulnerable districts, with the poverty rate well above the national average. Even before the influx, 33% of the host community population lived below the poverty line and 17% below the extreme poverty line. The arrival of the refugees has increased the supply of labour in the affected areas, driving down wages and increasing competition in the labour market, with a particular impact on the poorest host community households including those whose primary source of income is day labour. The influx has also put immense pressure on the availability and delivery of essential health services which were already scarce and overstretched. Women and girls, and women-headed households, are particularly vulnerable in this situation, including to gender-based violence which is likely to increase in times of economic stress. The project is designed to meet the immediate needs of the affected host communities in selected sub-districts in Cox’s Bazar, while building skills, resilience and awareness to facilitate their long-term well-being. With a focus on empowering and girls, the objective is to lift the most affected host communities out of poverty through a program that combines livelihoods, social safety nets, financial inclusion and social integration. Activities include: providing grants and related support to ultra-poor women for income generation activities such as home gardening and poultry-rearing; ; improving household food consumption; employment-linked apprenticeship training for out-of-school youth and adolescents (male and female); facilitating production and retailing of traditional clothing materials by women artisans; and targeted training of community health workers and midwives to help address the essential health needs of the most vulnerable host communities. The activities are expected to directly benefit over 10,000 women and young adults and reach over 200,000 members of their households. P006681002: This project aims to decrease coronavirus (COVID-19) related mortality and morbidity, among affected populations, especially those experiencing marginalization and/or vulnerability in Cox’s Bazar. The project works to mitigate the risk of community spread and increase local response capacity. Bangladesh is at a high risk given its slow response to the pandemic, weak health care system capacity, and high population density. For the host communities in Cox’s Bazar, the second poorest and most vulnerable district in Bangladesh even before the influx of the Rohingya in August 2017, COVID-19 has put immense pressure on the availability and delivery of essential health services, which were already scarce and overstretched. In addition, there are major concerns around a large-scale COVID-19 outbreak in the dense Rohingya refugee camps, due to limited health system capacity, and increasing restrictions on humanitarian access to the camps. Project activities include: (1) procuring and distributing medical equipment and medical supplies (cleaning materials, soap, paper towels, tables, chairs, benches, beds, fans, desks, lights, floor mats, etc.) for health facilities; (2) providing personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical professionals in primary healthcare centers in the refugee camps; (3) distributing masks, soap, and sanitizer supplies to community health workers and clients visiting health centers; (4) providing capacity building and training on case management and infection prevention and control to public health care professionals and service providers (doctors, midwives, paramedics, lab technicians, etc.); (5) providing communication and community engagement measures such as, training on effective engagement in case management, infection prevention, and risk reduction and awareness, particularly by women health workers communication actions at the district, divisional and national levels, including providing up-to-date information on COVID-19 to doctors and field support teams at the community level; and (6) organizing door-to-door awareness building sessions for self-reporting and maintaining social distancing within communities. The projects’ ongoing engagement with relevant civil society, government, and community stakeholders are expected to directly benefit approximately 8,132 individuals (of which 7,587 are women).