Nagar Daridra Basteebashir Unnayan Sangstha (NDBUS)

NDBUS celebrated the Victory Day, 2008 on Tuesday, 16th December with due respect to the Liberation War Martyrs who sacrificed their life in 1971 fighting against The Pakistani Army. The organization led by its general secretary paid homage at the National Mausoleum, Savar in the early morning. They organized various competitions like painting, essay writing and debate for children of NDBUS members at Women Voluntary Association Auditorium at Dhanmondi. The day long event was rounded up by a cultural show. The programme received full support from the Centre for Urban Studies (CUS), Dhaka. Architect Khadem Ali; Vice Chairman, Dr. Nurul Islam Nazem; General Secretary, Dr. A. Q. M. Mahbub; Member of the Executive Committee and Salma A. Shafi; Treasurer of CUS participated in various events of the day long programme. The Chairperson of the centre Professor Nazrul Islam also visited the venue during the painting session. The organization welcomed many Freedom Fighters as in vited guests dur

48 participants in 5 groups participated in the Computer Training programme held during November 8 - December 4, 2008 as a part of the URBIS Capacity Building Support for NDBUS in Dhaka, Bangladesh in its 2nd quarter, implemented by CUS. The training was delivered to 5 groups of participants who received 13.5 hours of training on the basic application of MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint and Internet in 3 days. The participants were evaluated. The programme was successful with the participation of youths most of whom crossed SSC level of education and learnt the unique machine and its application features. Comments of the participants Anwar Sadat : ………“I feel proud being trained up so many things within a very short time. Before this I had no experience of using computer” Kaniz Fatema :...... “It would be better if we had been trained up for more days though it was very useful”. Tanjila Akhter : ...... “For the first time I got chance to operate computer and it was a great experience i

CUS URBIS team organized 6 days training on “Advocacy and Networking Skills” for NDBUS members of Ward Committee Members of 02 (Polobi), 05 (Mirpur), 08 (Mirpur), 41 (Agargoan), 46 (Mohammadpur), 48 (Jigatola) on 15, 19, 20, 22, 26, 27 November ’08. Out of 90 members 85 were participated in this training session. Sessions were conducted into 6 groups; each group consists of 15 members. During the 1st half of the session trainees learned about basic advocacy tools and techniques. In the 2nd half of the training session they were divided into 3 groups (each group had 5 members) named Padma, Megna and Jamuna. In this session they were assigned to select individual topics by themselves regarding emerging issues such as Water and Sanitation Problem in Slum Areas, Education basically Child Education problem, Housing, Power Supply etc. and they made Advocacy Proposal on the selected issues based on first half’s theoretical lessons . Everyday the team leader presented their plan to the project

Today NDBUS has received their Registration Certificate from the Ministry of Social Welfare, People's Republic of Bangladesh under the Volunteer Social Welfare Act 1961; holding a new office address as House No.: 385, Road No.: 1, Banani, Korail, Dhaka.

The Certificate Awarding Ceremony for the participants of 1st Quarter (July-October’08) of the NDBUS members held on the 17th November 2008 at Chayanot auditorium. DIG delegates along with the project team members were presented at the ceremony. Chairmen of different ward & primary committees along with the Chairman & General Secretary of NDBUS were also presented. Salma A. Shafi, the Project Adviser; delivered her valuable speech as the inaugural speaker. DIG delegates: Thea Anderson, Technical Director; Michael Jenkins, Senior Advisor and Ashleigh Flesher, Programme Officer were the Special Guests at the Ceremony. The whole programme was conducted by the members of NDBUS. Certificates were distributed among 98 participants of different committees of NDBUS based on their successful completion of the following trainings: 4 Advocacy Training 4 Office Management Training 4 Disaster Management & Mitigation Training and 4 Computer Training A cultural function was al

Field trips were undertaken with students of Department of Architecture, U niversity of Asia Pacific (UAP), Dhaka; to Rayer Bazar & Mirpur respectively on 20th and 23rd October, 2008 with support of NDBUS members. The trips were lead by the Project Adviser Salma A. Shafi. The intent of the trips was to show the students existing low income settlements and examples of low cost housing projects for the urban poor undertaken by successive Governments and Donors. The following sites were visited; NHA (National Housing Authority) Project at Section – 1, 2; Mirpur. Bastuhara Colony (Nucleus Housing) at Section – 1, Mirpur. Baunia Bandh (Resettlement Programme) at Section – 11, Mirpur. Proposed Squatter Rehabilitation Project, Kalshi at Section – 12, Mirpur. Bhashantek Rehabilitation Project at Section – 13, Mirpur by North South Developers.

The 2nd Quarter of the “URBIS Capacity Building Support Project for NDBUS in Dhaka” begins from November 01, 2008. This phase will continue upto February 2009. During this period the following activities will be covered with participation of NDBUS members; List of Trainings: a. Advocacy b. Women Empowerment Programme c. Basic Computer Applications d. Computer Hardware Training e. Spoken English f. Income Generation Activities i. Mobile Repairing ii. Mushroom Training Study Tours: Narayanganj, Sirajganj & Kushtia to UPPR project sites.

The intent of the DIG funded URBIS Capacity Building Support for NDBUS in Dhaka, Bangladesh is to build the organizational capacity of BOSC/NDBUS to reach its core goals and objectives; by identifying and implementing a set of tasks/activities that will serve this overarching purpose. The DIG-URBIS initiative will seek to leverage complementary technical assistance, expertise and resources from the universities in Dhaka, international donor activities in Bangladesh (UNDP, DFID and GTZ), and international NGOs. As an important part of the services, CUS in coordination with Department of Architecture, University of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh will design and organize participatory workshops on improving land tenure for the urban poor of Dhaka city. Objective of the Workshop The workshop will be a collaborative effort between BOSC/NDBUS Executive Committee members as well as students of Department of Architecture, University of Asia Paicific, Bangladesh. The workshop will include: a. Improvi

Dear All, EID MUBARAK Our Office is closed from today 30th September to 04 Oct, 2008 to celebrate Eid. Please accept our best wishes for a Happy Eid and convey our greetings to your family. EID MUBARAK to all NDBUS Members, Project Staff at CUS and Officials at DIG. Executive Committee Members NDBUS Dhaka Bangladesh.

With the humanitarian support of a family trust, NDBUS provided financial aid to 23 meritorious students of their members who passed 2008 SSC Examination with brilliant performance. The financial assistance will help the families to buy books in the first academic year of their college. Project Adviser Salma A. Shafi distributed the grant among the students while Honorary Chairperson of CUS Professor Nazrul Islam provided the students guiding advices for continuing the success in the future and help the family, society, nation and the world as a whole. [More detailed contents are coming.]

As a part of the capacity building support for NDBUS in Dhaka, Bangladesh CUS project team launched Computer Training programmes for NDBUS members attached to Central Committee, Korail and Rayerbazar committees. 51 persons participated in the training started from September 6, 2008. The training concluded on September 25, 2008. The training was delivered to 6 groups of participants who received 13.5 hours of training on the basic application of MS Word, Ms Excel, MS PowerPoint and Internet in 3 days. The participants were evaluated and provided with TA. The evaluation were made on the following; 1. Participants without appearing at evaluation will not be entitled to get TA. 2. Evaluation will be based on the following; a. Attendance – 10% b. Participation (During Class & Practice) – 10% c. Written – 10% d. Practical - 10% e. Viva – 10% The programme was successful with the participation of youths who mostly crossed their SSC (Secondary School Certificate) level of education and lea

A 5-day long training was started on “Disaster Management and Mitigation” issue for Capacity Building Support of NDBUS members under URBIS program on 23rd, 25th - 28th August, 2008 from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm. Training module designed and facilitated by Dr. A.Q.M. Mahbub (Prof. Dept. of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka). This training week was designed for participants of NDBUS central committee, 2 ward committees (Korail & Rayerbazar) and 2 primary committees (Korail & Rayerbazar). Total 75 members from the above mentioned committees participated in the training. Contents of this training are as follows: Concept and Definition of Disaster and Consequences of Disaster Strategies to Mitigate Disaster: New and Old Classification of Man-Made and Natural Disasters Why Bangladesh is the most Disaster affected country in the World Map -Geographical Reasons -Economic Reasons -Social & Technical Reasons -Regional and International Reasons Why Poor People suffer during D

The Central committee members have started visiting 90 Ward Committees from 24th August, 2008 to mobilize their organization for better networking and more purposeful organizational activities. These aspects in detail are – 1. Dissemination of Changes in the Organization and Programmes plus Future Activities i. BOSC is going to be registered as NDBUS with the Government of Bangladesh ii. NDBUS is presently supported by DIG under its URBIS programme for Capacity Building of NDBUS where CUS is working as implementing partner iii. The project is progressing well Future Activities a. From October 2008 NDBUS will be shifting to their new office b. The office will coordinate with all the members of NDBUS in Dhaka c. The office will also carry on networking with other organizations in Bangladesh and abroad 2. Assessment of Present Ward Committees The Central Committee Members of NDBUS, have divided themselves into six groups to visit all 90 Wards within 6 days with the following purpo

The Second Training Week was designed with the participants of committee members of NDBUS Central Committee and Ward Committees of Korail and Rayerbazar. The training continued for two day long session where participants were provided with the following management issues along with visit to a project site of ARBAN (an NGO) initiated housing/apartment scheme at Shah Ali Bag, Mirpur Section - 2 which is being constructed with savings of 40 members. The scheme started since 1999 with micro credit members of the NGO. § Office Administration Learning Objective: To introduce management techniques applied in office administrations in performing day to day activities of an organization. § Data Management Learning Objective: To enable participants to record data as well as search for data and includes filing of data, labeling etc. § Accounting, Tax and Relevant Laws Learning Objective : Accounting, Tax and Relevant issues enables NDBUS members to maintain daily accounts, bank accounts, ledger,

CUS URBIS team organized 5 days training on "Advocacy and Networking Skills" for institutional strengthening and development for NDBUS members under URBIS program on 3rd - 7th August '2008. The first training week was designed with the participants from NDBUS Central Committee, 2 Ward Committees and 2 Primary Committees. Total 75 trainees were divided into 5 groups each consisting of 15 trainees. Content of this training are as follows: What is Advocacy? Advocacy as a tool for Citizen Participation Advocacy as an Exercise of Power Advocacy as a Cumulative Process Why engage in Advocacy? 8 steps of Advocacy - Identify and Analyze the Problem, Prioritization of Causes, Analysis of Causes and Consequences- Formulate Advocacy Proposal, Criteria & Characteristics for a Proposal - Analyze the Decision-Making Space -Analyze Channels of Influence, Identification of key Actors, Classification of Actors as Allies, Undecided Persons or Opponents, Analyzing the Interests of Deci

On 3rd August at 10:00 am Salma A. Shafi inaugrated the Advocacy Training for Central Committee Members of NDBUS at CUS Training Room. The NDBUS central committee is the First Batch to be followed by Ward and Primary Committees of NDBUS at Korail and Rayerbazar. The day long traing will be concluded on 7th August with the participation of Primary Committee Members of Rayerbazar. Salma Shafi, Project Adviser concluded the day long training at 5 pm followed by a musicial session where eminent guitarist Mr. Kabir performed guiter and entertained the participants. The CUS has arranged lunch of the participants at Chhayanat canteen everyday during training. The next training will include Management skills from August 9, 2008.