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Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB) founded in 1973, immediately after the Bangladesh Liberation War, by the World Council of Churches (WCC) to succeed the Bangladesh Ecumenical Relief and Rehabilitation Services (BERRS). This national organization working under the banner of the National Council of Churches of Bangladesh (NCCB) was founded to aid in relief and rehabilitation leading to mid and long-term development activities. It is governed by an inter-faith body called the Commission. Its services are rendered in the spirit of inter-faith dimensions, irrespective of caste or creed, race or religion. These services are quite separate from evangelism. The organization asks local imams to to talk about disaster preparedness in their Friday services as part of its Disaster Preparedness Programme.

Major activities

The major activities of CCDB include rural development, people-managed savings and credit programmes, work with ethnic/indigenous communities, training traditional birth attendants, women’s development programmes and gender awareness programmes, enhancing human and organizational potential. The major programmes are:

• Ethnic Community Development Programs: It include five major thrusts: local self-governance (the People's Institution programme), education (including the highly successful programme to provide local schools), ethnic culture, health, food security and the economic development, and environmental conservation.
• Traditional Birth Attendant Training Program: 30,000 practicing Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) has been trained through an eleven-day basic training course.
• Economic Development Program (EDP): Trhough this programme CCDB arranged business creation training courses for 310 rural entrepreneurs. It also provided business development services and appropriate technology support, including organic farming, to these entrepreneurs.
• Women's Small Local Organization Program (WSLO): The WSLO program has been helping women of Bangladesh to develop management skills through small local organizations since 1989. 200 WSLO representatives participated in training, workshops and orientations on a variety of subjects. These subjects include the human trafficking, human rights, entrepreneurship, HIV/AIDS, arsenic mitigation, legal services, safe water and sanitation, adolescent reproductive health and the birth registration among other issues. The WSLO program also created 14 preschools that serve 2400 underprivileged children.

Current Status

CCDB is addressing the needs for access to credit, training, and work through its People’s Participatory Rural Development (PPRD) in 22 districts. These are: Manikganj, Rajshahi, Narsingdi, Nawabganj, Naogaon, Natore, Pabna, Gopalganj, Barisal, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Bandarban, Rangamati, Faridpur, Jessore, Magura, Jhenaidah, Khulna, Sathkhira, Kushtia, Narail and Cox's Bazar. CCDB has provided necessary support 36 community development areas, 49 small organisations and 136,595 families, including 28,949 people helped through PPRD, 9,100 of them from the poorest sector of the communities.

CCDB is addressing the needs for access to credit, training, and work through PPRD, its core development program, as well as other programmes. CCDB's nine programs together has helped over 100,000 people, 80% of whom are women and children. These programmes are supported by 14 donor agencies from Europe, Australia and USA, with an annual contribution of approximately $3.5 million. The World Council of Churches (WCC), Geneva, co-ordinates a Round Table for CCDB. The budget of the organisation for 2000-2001 was Tk 188.395 million. The WSLO has been particularly successful in mobilizing local and external donor agencies to support CCDB projects.

At present it is operating its development programs in 89 Thanas under 19 districts of Bangladesh covering 129,660 poor reference families. The regular staff strength of CCDB is 379. Yearly operation budget is approximately US$2.1 million.

Footnotes

1. ^ Shamsul Huda, CCDB, Banglapedia: The national encyclopedia of Bangladesh; Retrieved: 2007-12-11
2. ^ Sushanta Adhikari, Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh, Financial Management Service Foundation, India; Retrieved: 2007-12-16
3. Sara Speicher, Building a house on sand, World Council of Churches, 13 May 2002; Retrieved: 2007-12-16
4. ^ Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB) Update, Global Ministries; Retrieved: 2007-12-16
5. ^ People's Participatory Rural Development, Bangladesh, Church Word Service; Retrieved: 2007-12-16

References

• WCC Asia Desk
• An evolutionary approach to facilitating organisational learning
• People's Participatory Rural Development, Bangladesh
• ACT members
• Christian Commission For The Development Of Bangladesh
• SAMREN
• Christian Aid report to the United Reformed Church

• NGOs in Bangladesh
• Christianity in Bangladesh