This is a view as I walk out from the flat in the afternoon. Life in Dhaka is is full of dusty concrete and tile and roads gone wanting.
The month of October has come and gone so very quickly and now here I am, jet lagged in Dhaka. After leaving IBM and North Carolina at the beginning of this month, I ran around trying to visit as many people as I could in the little time I had before leaving. The highlights of this were camping in Lancaster, visiting EMU for homecoming, a quick jaunt up to NYC and taking in Messiah’s homecoming soccer game all before orientation started on the 21st. Orientation lasted 10 days and was held at MCC’s Welcoming Place in Akron. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Welcoming Place it is MCC’s answer to a retreat center–consisting of several small dorms, each named and decorated after a continent arrayed around a dinning hall and assembly hall. After finishing orientation I took a British Airways flight to England to spend 3 days on a very quick trip to Cheltenam and wandering around London. From there BA 145 took me to Dhaka this morning, arriving late enough ( or early depending on perspective) that just as I was falling asleep I was startled by the 5am morning call to prayers. I did get a few hours of sleep before a morning cup of tea and starting Language Study. Which leads me to our Bengali lesson. Apni kemon achen? - How are you? Ami Klanto Achi - I am tired.
P.S. I’m sending out an email with periodic updates, the idea being that it will be mostly the same content as posted here. I sent out the first one yesterday. If you did not receive it and would like to, email me at ncharles [at] gmail [dot] com.
This week I announced that I would be leaving my job at IBM after 5 years to take a position serving with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Bogra, Bangladesh. I decided to post some of the job description to answer some questions.
Assignment Title: Appropriate Technology Program Director
Location: Bogra, Bangladesh
Synopsis:
Person needed to head up a newly formed Appropriate Technology Centre (Lagshoi Projukti Kendro) in Bogra next to the Model Homestead (Adarsho Khamar Bari) to undertake research and development in the requirements for rural living. Jute/cement housing, PV solar, led lighting, floating garden vessels, solar cooking, food preservation, and water storage are some of the initial areas of inquiry.
Assignment Description:
As indicated by the name Research & Extension Activity Partners (REAP), this program of MCC Bangladesh is working with 15 partner organizations (primarily nongovernmental), to improve the food security and living conditions of the rural poor of Bangladesh. All of the partners are located in the northwestern part of Bangladesh and most are involved in micro credit. Through the partnership, REAP is involved in capacity building of the partner organizations primarily in the area of agriculture (crop, vegetable, livestock and fish) and helps these partner organizations to assist their beneficiaries in using improved agricultural techniques. A new thrust in the area of Appropriate Technology R&D is designed to identify and develop technologies that can improve living, protect the environment, conserve needed cash and create cash income. Additional initiatives include Mediation Training, and HIV Education which are being incorporated into the Extension Program.
The direct beneficiaries and the farmers of these partnerships are mostly women. However, the organizations seek to reach the whole family. Ownership of the land in Bangladesh is highly fragmented because of population pressure and the inheritance systems. Typical rural farm families, regardless of whether they are indigenous or minorities, depend on agriculture. Many are landless and on an average, possess less than one acre of land including the homestead. The farming system is very much integrated within the family unit. Most of the families are involved with at least two or three of the following activities: vegetable and crop production, livestock rearing, poultry rearing, and fish farming. They may also have fruit trees or timber trees on their homesteads. Besides the farming, they often sell labor to the neighboring agricultural landlords who are comparatively richer.
The lack of resources makes it difficult for the rural poor to move beyond getting enough rice for the next meal. No light for reading, no fuel for cooking, no vegetables to improve nutrition, no materials to build housing, the list goes on and on. This assignment will seek innovative ways to economically address these and other issues in daily living.
The workshop will adjoin the Model Homestead (Adarsho Khamar Bari) which will at once demonstrate needs that inspire solutions while providing a forum for demonstrating the resulting technologies. Some ideas that lend themselves to larger scale production, will feed into income generation projects under the Job Creation Program of MCC Bangladesh.
Duties:
Be a team member of REAP.
Observe and listen to the needs of the rural people.
Assist technical staff to evaluate the economic feasibility of new technologies.
Pursue a list of candidate technologies and build prototypes and test their effectiveness.
Serve as a trainer to the field staff and to the partner staff whenever necessary.
Assist in the design of adoption strategies.
Document the findings, successes and setbacks.
Location Description:
Bogra (approximate population 107,000) is a District Headquarters town situated on the main north road, 200 km northwest of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Travel from Dhaka takes approximately 3.5 to 4 hours by bus or car. The REAP program office is located in Bogra; however the working area of the partner NGOs are scattered to the north, south and west of Bogra. Road communication to the Partner NGOs is good, and the office vehicle or motorcycles can also be used to visit partner locations. Very recently cell phones have become popular among the people and almost the whole country is covered by the network. In the REAP office email/internet is available. Some laptops are connected to the internet from the field through the national cell phone grid.
Located in the tropical zone, Bogra has warm weather with a moderate amount of rainfall. Temperature can range from 35 C during the months of July and August to 10 C during January. July is usually the wettest month of the year with high humidity. The annual yearly rainfall is around 79 inches.
Three months of Bengali language study will be offered at the beginning of the term. Presently there are no expatriates in the REAP office, however most of the national staff are used to working with expatriates and it is expected that there will be several expatriates working there in the future. Bengali is the major language, however in the office, English is used a fair amount. In the community, people are generally friendly and hospitable.
About MCC:
Mennonite Central Committee is a relief, development, and peace agency of the North American Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches and If you want to know more, you can start reading here. http://mcc.org/about/
