দেশের উপেক্ষিত জনগোষ্ঠীর জীবনোন্নয়ন ও তাদের মূল সমাজব্যবস্থায় প্রতিষ্ঠিত করাই আমাদের লক্ষ্য Not everything is bleak, though.
Garbo Bangladesh Foundation is a Bangladeshi non-government, non-profit, charitable organization working for marginalized communities in Bangladesh. We Empower, Involve and Innovate to realize our dream of a discrimination free Bangladesh. Tens of thousands of marginalized communities, such as sweepers, transgenders and indigenous people are strewn all across Bangladesh; systematically deprived of
civic and human rights by the mainstream society. For some, the necessity of their children’s education is questioned, while for others, lack of acceptability at workplace forces them to beg. The needs of Bangladeshi marginalized communities are unique, often varying from one geographic location to the next, and generic development programs championed by NGOs do little to help them. These communities are home to some of the most resilient people around. Circumstances have forced them to develop strong intra-group bonds, and a sympathetic hand of support is what they need to hone the huge amount of social capital they possess. Garbo Bangladesh Foundation provides just that. We Empower, Involve and Innovate, in a novel approach to development in Bangladesh. To understand how a system works, you have to be a part of the system. We believe in this age old saying, and when we approach a community to help it develop, we start with a blank slate. We don’t go to a community with a preconceived solution, rather we research the nature, strategic dimension and extent of the problems faced by the community, involving community members at each and every stage of the process. Once that is done, we discuss with the community on how to efficiently tackle these problems using the limited resources of the community, and through our online forum and social media, we seek innovative solutions that we can implement with the community’s active support. In all cases the solutions are tailored to the situation; indeed, the same problem may be solved in two different ways in two different locations. Traditional “one size fits all” solutions simply don’t work in most community, and overreliance on such “silver bullets” is perhaps the main reason why development funds have seen poor returns in the past. On 24th January 2013 we started working with our first marginalized group, sweepers or harijon. The first Garbo Bangladesh Community Development Lab has been set up in Natore Uttor Chowkirpar Harijon Colony, and in the span of a very short time, we have been able to establish excellent rapport with the community, and launched a primary school where 100 harijon children and teenage dropouts are enrolled (the number continues to rise). Read more about Natore Community Development Lab on our website. Transparency is a major problem for Bangladeshi NGOs, and we are determined to establish Garbo Bangladesh Foundation as the most transparent NGO of Bangladesh. Complete record of our revenue and expenditure will be available to donors, along with explanations and justification for the costs incurred.
