World Concern
Donate
World Concern
Donate

Bangladesh

Region: Asia

Since 1991, World Concern Bangladesh (WCB) has served the most vulnerable people and communities in Bangladesh through disaster response and sustainable community development with multisector programming funded by diverse partners. WCB’s goal is to see societies with values of justice, peace, and equality that allow all to live with mutual love and respect. We are active in 38 sub-districts of 16 districts in Bangladesh.

Community Issues

  • Bangladesh is ranked seventh in the world in extreme weather events such as floods and cyclones. Rising sea levels and temperatures are displacing families because of reduced clean water accessibility and agriculture. Climate impact is affecting Bangladeshis' health and safety, as high rates of pollution and the spread of water-borne diseases continue to peak.
  • Women and girls across Bangladesh face exclusion, abuse, neglect, and violence due to their gender. Girls are specifically at risk of being sold as child brides because their families live in extreme poverty.
  • Nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees live in the world's largest refugee settlement located in Cox's Bazar District and Bhasan Char in Bangladesh. There, men, women, and children face disease outbreaks, nutrition deficiencies, and lack of educational opportunities. They are at great risk for exploitation and gender-based violence.

Make a Difference

To partner with World Concern's ongoing work in Bangladesh, give generously today!

country-focus-bangladesh.jpg

Focus Areas

  • Disaster Response & Risk Reduction

    Activities to reduce the risk of disaster during floods and cyclones include helping communities set up advance warning systems; teaching children how to swim; training women to wrap their hair up and families to secure their children to trees during extreme storms so they are not swept away; and teaching emergency first aid, how to construct a portable stove, and to bury important documents. Other risk reduction includes tree planting projects to prevent landslides and increased damage from annual storms.

  • Education

    Activities aim at increasing the number of boys and girls who are in school from preschool through high school, and on to college. This is done through the establishment of preschools, scholarships for boys and girls, and adult literacy programs.

  • Economic Empowerment

    A strong micro-credit program in Bangladesh means many adults, particularly women, learn financial management, are saving, and are able to take out loans to open small businesses that give their families more than one stream of income and increase the stability of each household. This enables them to have better nutrition and pay for their children to attend school.

  • Protection

    Through education and financial empowerment, women and children are protected from child marriage, child labor, and trafficking. With the ability to earn an income, women are given more respect in the family and have a voice in society. WCB project teams train community members on preventing gender-based violence and protecting children from harmful practices that inhibit healthy growth and development.

Annual Results

World Concern Bangladesh served 653,295 men, women, and children through our programs last year.

country-story-bangladesh-trisha.jpg
A Story from Bangladesh

Saved from Child Marriage and Empowered to Learn

Like her friends, Trisha loved school and excelled in her studies. She dreamed of one day becoming a teacher. But that dream was soon challenged when her father, a fisherman, could no longer work and their income was gone. Helplessness set in, which led to despair. Weighing his options, Trisha’s father struggled to feed all his children. The only alternative available was to have Trisha, his only daughter, be married. While this was not an easy decision, he felt it necessary to ensure provision for her and the entire family.

Upon learning of the plan for her marriage, Trisha was devastated. Her dream and the innocence of youth would soon be extinguished. She said, “I saw only dark.” Through World Concern, she had learned about the dangers of early marriage—that girls given in child marriage are often injured during pregnancy and childbirth, many are malnourished, girls face physical and emotional abuse, and some husbands abandon them as they age.

In a desperate attempt to avoid these outcomes for herself, Trisha confided in her World Concern adolescent support group. A World Concern project officer and several members went to her father to inform him about the national law that prohibits marriage under the age of 18 for girls and the harmful effects early marriage and childbirth can have on girls. This information, along with added support for the family and a scholarship for Trisha to stay in school, changed her father’s decision and saved her from early marriage.

Now Trisha is pursuing her dream, along with 521 other girls and boys in Bangladesh who were given scholarships this year.

“I am very grateful to World Concern Bangladesh for their assistance,” Trisha said. “Without their support, I would have been unable to continue my studies, I would have had to drop out from school, and even would have been married at an early age. Now I can study, and I can achieve my dream.”

Global Partners