User:Proshika

About
The name 'PROSHIKA' is an acronym of three Bangla words, which stands for training, education, and action.

Mission
PROSHIKA's mission is to conduct an extensive, intensive, and participatory process of sustainable development through empowering of the poor.

Vision
PROSHIKA envisages a society which is economically productive and equitable, socially just, environmentally sound, and genuinely democratic.

Description
It has been more than three decades since PROSHIKA, now one of the largest NGOs in Bangladesh, took its first step. Although the PROSHIKA development process started in a few villages of Dhaka and Comilla districts in 1975, the organization formally emerged in October, 1976.

PROSHIKA has successfully completed one more year of its extended period of Phase VI. A constant analysis of the magnitude of poverty and its trends, the strategies effective for its reduction and eventual elimination, and their meticulous implementation has brought PROSHIKA where it is today. The central ethos, however, all the while remained the same human development and empowerment of the poor who gradually stand tall to achieve freedom from poverty by themselves. Empowerment means that the poor are united and organized, become aware of the real causes of their impoverishment, develop leadership among themselves, mobilize their material resources, increase income and employment, develop capacities to cope with natural disasters, become functionally literate, take better care of their health, become engaged in environmental protection and regeneration, get elected in local government bodies and community institutions, and have better access to public and common property resources.

Objectives
PROSHIKA's objectives are:

i)
Structural poverty alleviation.

ii)
Environmental protection and regeneration.

iii)
Improvement in women's status.

iv)
Increasing people's participation in public institutions.

v)
Increasing people's capacity to gain and exercise democratic and human rights.

These objectives are achieved through a broad range of programmes in education and training leading to income and employment generation, health education, building of health infrastructure, and environmental protection and regeneration. The programmes are supported by research activities and advocacy campaigns which increasingly call for cooperation with like-minded development partners at the national and international levels. Thus the network of activities in which PROSHIKA is involved links the poorest of the poor with like-minded development actors worldwide.

Who PROSHIKA works with
Spread in 23,559 villages and 2,102 urban slums in 58 districts, PROSHIKA now works with nearly 2.77 million men and women members drawn from rural and urban poor households, and has organized them into 148,039 primary groups of average 19 members each. As there are on average 1.3 members from each household having 5.5 family members, this translates into over 11.72 million programme beneficiaries of PROSHIKA.

Area Coverage
Villages : 23,559 Slums : 2,380 Unions (Rural) : 1,842 Wards (Urban) : 375 Upazilas : 271 Districts : 58

People's Organization Building
Primary Groups (Women) : 96,150 Primary Groups (Men) : 51,889 Total : 148,039

Primary Group Members
Women : 1,719,342 (17.19 Lakh) Men : 1,050,764 (10.50 Lakh) Total : 2,770,106 (27.70 Lakh)

Households : 2,131,337 (21.31 Lakh) Poverty-free Households : 1,244,244 (12.44 Lakh) Beneficiaries : 11,722,355 (1.17 Crore)

Group Federations
Village Federations : 14,683 Slum Federations : 1,906 Union Federations : 1,360 Upazila Federations : 140 Urban Area Federations : 33

Credit Assistance
Project Distributed to the Groups for EIG Activities : 1,420,000 (14.20 Lakh) Loan Disbursed for Groups for EIG Activities : Tk. 45,039 Million (4,504 Crore) Borrower Received Loan : 3.57 Million (35.72 Lakh) Employment/Self-employment created : 12.33 Million (1.23 Crore)

Training
Human Development Training Participants : 20.58 Million (2.06 Crore) Practical Skill Dev. Training Participants : 1.16 Million (11.55 Lakhs)

Universal Education
Adult Literacy Centres Set up So Far : 53,839 Persons Graduated with Functional Literacy Skill : 1,143,000 (11.43 Lakh) Non-Formal Primary Schools Established : 23,502 Students Enrolled into Non-Formal Primary Schools : 716,000 (7.16 Lakh)

Environmental Protection and Regeneration
Trees Planted : 93.80 Million (9.38 Crore) Land Brought Under Ecological Agriculture : 247,000 (2.47 Lakh Acres) Farmers Practising Ecological Agriculture : 804,000 (8.04 Lakh)

Helth Infrastructure Buidling
Houses Constructed for the Poor : 31,757 Hand Tube-wells Installed : 26,175 Low-Cost Sanitary Latrines Installed : 826,000 (8.26 Lakh)