Update

I have started my impact monitoring work since the sixth of June. I had enough time for planning this work, so June has been a laid back month for me.  I finished my first field visit last week and will go on another one in the next two weeks. I am really looking forward to these next field trips to northern Bangladesh and southern Bangladesh. The first field trip is to Khulna district.  In south Bangladesh, prawn farming is common. Hopefully, I will get some opportunity to visit some prawn hatcheries. Prawns are hatched in saline water and then they have to be transferred to non-saline water. These little creatures are very protective of their females. I think it is cool that these tiny things have so much personality. I am going to Khulna to conduct impact monitoring of technology dissemination in aquaculture. My last trip is to Bogra, which is six hours from Dhaka. I will be doing impact monitoring of technology dissemination in potato farming.

Group Interview with Farmers

Women in Bangladesh

I have visited some areas in Bangladesh. Most visits were during the panchayat level election time. I am impressed with how active women are in Bangladesh. Many of election candidates were women. In fact, places where I conducted focus group discussion, I got to watch some woman candidate campaign for election. I understand Bangla about 80 percent and I can tell her campaign was great. It was a very powerful political campaign. I cannot even imagine coming up with such agenda for a political campaign. In focus group discussions I had invited 12 women, but in one of my focus group, there were 30 participants. I asked them why they all wanted to come. They told me they had lot to say and I thought that was great. Bangladeshi women participation in politics is an equally impressive thing. The major political leaders are women and the major ministries are run by women.

Presenting findings

Introduction

I arrived in Bangladesh on 18 May, 2011. I started my work on the 19^th. My work here is divided into two parts: 16 days is for Rural Enterprise for Alleviating Poverty project (REAP) and remaining of the days is for Farmer to Farmer program. So far, I completed my REAP project and today I moved on to Farmer to Farmer. I don’t know what to write here, so I am writing all this.  12 days I worked in the office and four days I worked in the field. I worked in 6 sub-districts of Gazipur, Tanail and Mymensing district. I conducted four focus group discussions, four group interviews, one SWOT analysis, and presentation of my final report and also I conducted a seminar on my findings.

Well, there is really nothing so exotic to talk about for me in Bangladesh. I find it very similar to Nepal. I don’t usually feel I am in a new country. I feel like I am back in Nepal. The food is similar, the culture is similar and the sense of humor is very similar to Nepali people. There are some differences in Bangladesh and Nepal. Bangladesh is extremely crowded and Nepal is not. Dhaka is an overwhelming city. It is surrounded by tall and modern buildings, big malls, etc.  Also, there are many rickshaws and auto-rickshaws. The villages here are very similar to villages in Nepal. My next project (Evaluation work) is focused on the northern and southern region of Bangladesh. I am looking forward to it.

Photos

A very active member of the association.

Conducting group interviews with the women-only "East-North Dhirasram Integrated Fish Culture Entrepreneur Organization" in Gaizupur district.

Members of "Ramgopalpur Integrated Fish Culture Association" in Gouripur upazilla, Mymensing district.