Gram Theke Shuru

"A project to provide income generating opportunities and educational stipends"

A field report from Rayed Khan and Raquib Khan , SpaandanB representatives:

Having volunteered for SpaandanB the past several years, I've had the opportunity to visit villages in rural Bangladesh several times with my father (Raquib Khan), who coordinates a few projects with the organization. Three years ago, we went to the village of Masimnagar (Bancharampur, Brammanbariya District) where my father was visiting men and women who had received 10,000 taka earlier from SpaandanB (roughly $170 US) through the Gram Theke Shuru Project. Translated literally, 'It Starts with the Village', Gram Theke Shuru targets villagers who would benefit from receiving enough money to purchase a cow. Cows provide nourishment and income through their daily milk production, and often provide offspring that can be sold or kept to make milk and children of their own, all at a profit to the owner. more...

Project Video

Project History

"Gram Theke Shuru" means "starts from the village" - the name aptly portrays the main concept behind this project. More than 80% of the population of Bangladesh lives in the villages. Any economical growth of the country has to start from the homesteads of these villagers. With this goal in mind, Gram Theke Shuru project provides small scale monetary support to underprivileged villagers so that they can invest it in some kind of income generating activities - like cow or goat rearing or poultry farming. This provides a sustaining means of support to the families. Under this project, four educational stipends are provided to graduating students of grade 8 and 9.

Gram Theke Shuru is a specific donor supported and monitored project. It is a perfect example of how a donor can organize his/her own project through SpaandanB and gets involved with the activity to a greater extent.