Bangladesh
ADRA Bangladesh
Serving the local population since 1971
In a country oppressed by poverty and gender inequality, ADRA Bangladesh strives to empower women through literacy training, microfinance loans, and small-business management. We support farmers with innovative agriculture practices, children with school enrollment and test preparations, and the nation with tree planting.
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Anwara’s Story
Bangladesh
Anwara’s Story
Bangladesh
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Anwara’s Story
Anwara has lived a nightmare. Her village was burned to the ground and her husband brutally murdered, forcing her to flee through the night to find safety for her children.
“When the army attacked our village, they arrested all the men,” she said. “My husband was among them.
“I had heard that the army had mutilated his body,” Anwara recalled, her eyes red with tears. “I went to the city to verify the news and collect his body if necessary.”
“I was horrified. I verified it was him, and then I fled.”
Early the next morning, Anwara gathered her seven children and ran to the Naf River, which separates Myanmar from Bangladesh. On one side was the certainty of danger and death, on the other an uncertain safety.
Day and night, the desperate family hid among grazing cattle on the grassy riverbanks. Finally, at 2 a.m., Anwara traded her gold earrings for her family’s passage before squeezing onto a small boat crowded with 35 others.
Anwara and her children now live at Camp Leda in the southeast corner of Bangladesh, just a few miles from the life she shared with her husband and community. There, she had her own house, many goats, and seven cows. At Leda, she has nothing—just a black tarp “house” and small rations of food aid.
“I left everything behind to find safety in Bangladesh,” she said. “Now everything is gone, but my children are well.”
Every night Anwara is haunted by the memories of her home and husband, but she wakes each morning with renewed faith in God and the humanitarian agencies like ADRA that continue to support her.
For refugees like Anwara, the future is uncertain and seemingly hopeless. Without your support, others like Anwara may not survive. It is your gift today that can provide the safety, security, and hope they so desperately need.
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Bangladesh Office
Landerson Serpa Santana, Country Director
Dhaka, Bangladesh
+88029034096
Additional Information
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Capacity Statement Overview
Transforming the lives of vulnerable women is central to the mission of ADRA Bangladesh. Many are illiterate, impoverished, and ill-treated. Through our women’s empowerment programs, we have taught thousands of vulnerable women how to read, start a business, and support a family. Our microfinance institution is particularly effective, enabling 21 boards, or self-supporting and self-managed microfinance groups, to develop and thrive. These 21 groups are now independent and fully registered with the Bangladesh Government Department of Cooperatives. Because of these groups, 4,725 women have reaped the benefits of financial training and loans.
Our Capacity Statement further highlights the projects, programs, and people of ADRA Bangladesh. -
Country Overview
Following nine months of civil war in 1971, East Pakistan fell and Bangladesh emerged. But with the joy of independence came 5 million citizens dead, a crippled infrastructure, and an industrial and economic decline. Since liberation, Bangladesh has been plagued by natural disasters, resulting in many people dead and even more displaced.