Enhancing Resources andIncreasing Capacities of PoorHouseholds towards Eliminationof Their Poverty (ENRICH)
Enhancing Resources and Increasing Capacities of Poor Household towards Elimination of their Poverty (ENRICH) is an integrated pilot project which started in July 2014 with the support of PKSF.
The ENRICH has been uniquely designed to target such issues towards ensuring household-based sustainable development. The ENRICH aims to facilitate the best utilization of the existing capabilities and resources of the poor households and, at the same time, help enhance both their capabilities and resources in order to enable them to come out of poverty and move ahead towards a life of human dignity. By working with the households in association with the local government and other committed service providers, the ENRICH catalysis the households’ efforts to lift themselves out of poverty. The overall goal of the ENRICH is to ensure human dignity and freedom by gradually reducing poverty in a sustainable manner, towards total elimination of poverty and beyond poverty sustainable development at the household level in the unions under the programme. The vision is that the goal would eventually be achieved for all citizens of the country. Specifically, a key objective is to unlock the latent potentials of the poor and to encourage and assist them in improving their socio-economic status. The underlying dynamics of ENRICH are that the PKSF, the PO, the Union Parishad and other concerned service providers work with the people included in the programme to empower them to take charge of their destiny. Hence, it is important that the people themselves are fully committed to shaping their own future, reaching a level of humanly dignified living. Awareness-raising among the people is, therefore, an important ENRICH-activity to help the people to make that commitment and work accordingly.
The specific objectives of the ENRICH are to: 1. Attain total development of each household as well as the whole community participating in ENRICH; 2. Ensure freedom from all ‘un-freedoms’ and human dignity for all members of all households under ENRICH; 3. Empower the poor households so that they can pursue a pathway that would lead them towards the goal of human freedom and dignity; 4. Ensure access of all participants in ENRICH to all capacity enhancing activities such as education, skill training, and health services; essential institutional facilities; appropriate financing for their chosen economic undertakings; necessary market and other information; appropriate technologies; and so on.
The project is being implemented in Shilkhali Union of Pekua Upazilla in the District of Cox’s Bazar. The programme seeks to end poverty of 3805 households from 33 villages of Shilkhali Union where 17930 people are living.  BASTOB has been working with those poor household members in association with the local government and other committed stakeholders to help them lift themselves out of poverty, so that they can bring changes in their socio-economic condition by themselves. The project deployed 41 staff members which include 1 Union Coordinator, 1 health assistant, 8 health sebika, 1 education supervisor and 30 school teachers for overall development of the union,.
