Poverty and Development

PKSF completed EU-funded 'Food Security 2012 Bangladesh-Ujjibito' project. The Final Evaluation Report states that the project has helped 183,000 poor households successfully graduate from extreme poverty. Apart from the successfully graduated households, the remaining 142,000 extremely poor households have been enabled to enjoy sustainable and decent means of living, sustainable development of health and nutrition and increased participation in social activities, and increased social empowerment. The realistic and effective innovative activities of the project can be replicated in other projects. These activities include ‘1000-day Special Health and Nutrition Service for antenatal, neonatal and child care, Ujjibito Adolescent Clubs to increase health and social awareness, Alor Karkhana libraries for community-based knowledge sharing and social development at the local level, disability-friendly mobile training facilities, livelihood activities suitable for trans-gender for s

The rate of child marriage and early childbirth is significantly high in Bangladesh due to the traditional gender norms of society and the socio-economic condition of the families. Adolescent girls from comparatively poor families often fall victims to early marriage. In addition, the status of physical and mental growth of adolescent girls is poor in the country. The adolescent clubs were formed to address the underlying social constraints which affect the adolescent girls’ lives and restrict them from becoming active economic agents under an EU-funded project titled ‘Food Security 2012 Bangladesh-Ujjibito’ , implemented by PKSF <www.pksf-bd.org>. These clubs have been established to empower girls by giving them access to information about their rights, educating them of their responsibilities towards the society, providing them life skills for improving their self-confidence and negotiating skills to establish their rights. It reveals from the independent evaluation that those