Healthy living from the forest

The Sundarbans forest [Marcella Haddad]

CAFOD partner Prodipan is a group working with communities who rely on the Sundarbans mangrove forests in Bangladesh for their livelihoods

Prodipan (the name means ‘enlightenment’ in Bengali) works with poor and landless people in 65 villages in the Khulna district.

The programme helps people to find alternative employment, relieving stress on the forests, and helps people to lobby for their protection and regeneration.

Savings and credit schemes have encouraged people to develop environmentally-friendly harvesting of forest products such as grasses for mat weaving and fruits and herbs.

Thousands of trees have been planted around homes to provide timber and fruit, and to help the Sundarbans forests to recover.

Kitchen garden

Alia Begum, 35, was chosen by Caritas to set up a kitchen garden and donated 50% towards the costs of setting up the garden.

"Previously, I couldn't eat more than twice a day," she says. "Now I can eat three times a day. Before I rented a small house and now I have my own home. My family can now grow our own vegetables."

Most days, her family eats rice and vegetables but twice a week, they eat fish or meat.

Alia has 20 small chickens and also lease a cow that is pregnant - the calf and milk will belong to Alia's family.

They will rear the calf and hope to sell it for 6,000 to 7,000 Taka (£60-£70). A small calf would cost 1,000 Taka (£10) to buy.

In Satkhira, Alia was a maidservant and her husband worked as a rickshaw puller. She earned 100 Taka (£1) per month and three meals a day for herself.

"Now I can work independently."

Training and assistance

Her husband still pulls a rickshaw - earning 40-50 Taka per day (40-50p). He then has to pay 14 Taka per day in rent for the rickshaw (14p).

"We can't survive on this money alone," says Alia. "We have to depend on the kitchen garden now - we can sell pumpkins and other vegetables."

The family receive training and technical assistance from the Social Forestry Programme. Sometimes neighbours come to ask questions about her garden and she shares ideas with them.

Alia's 15-year-old son Mostafizur hopes he will set up a big nursery, saying: "In the future, I won't buy any fruit and vegetables from the market but will grow all my own food and maybe be able to sell at market.

"Thank you to the people of CAFOD who support Caritas. Previously I was workless, but now I produce my own vegetables."

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