By Saima Hassan | Director Development and Communications
OBAT Helpers has been working to empower the camp residents living in acute poverty in Bangladesh since 2004. Substantial progress has been made toward the objectives of empowering this unfortunate group, thanks to the support we have received over the years. The organization is now serving the camp population in eleven cities by implementing projects related to education, health and microfinance. Throughout this journey, OBAT has had the privilege of using the talents of the local community members who are a part of its staff and who have helped with the implementation and the running of the projects. To streamline our projects to better serve the camp community, the need for accurate data is immense. The area we serve in Bangladesh, is geographically dispersed and data is hard to find or collect. There are no recent official sources of data or documentation available either. Hence, OBAT decided to partner with PARAA, a United Kingdom based nonprofit in 2015.
The project was known as the Survey and Mapping Project of the camps.
The project was launched to ascertain the following information:
The project started in Mirpur, Dhaka and used an electronic survey that was developed by PARAA. Volunteers from the camps were used to collect the information and to also carry out the actual physical measurement of the housing.
However, the organization ran into unseen problems. A lot of it had to do with beingunable to secure buy in from the camp dwellers before the start of the project. Communication was insufficient and a lack of clear understanding prevailed before the project started. The mapping conveyed a wrong message to the camp dwellers. They thought that a group or organization was measuring their houses and camp areas and were planning to remove them from their homes. This created panic among the camp residents, conflict among the camp management committee about how to handle the situation and ultimately created a huge roadblock for conducting the survey and mapping. Since this was an independent project operated by PARAA, OBAT was not involved in their strategic planning and day to day activities. This was an oversight from OBAT’s end as we were not monitoring the project on the ground but were being totally dependent on our partnering organization. Prior to this, PARAA had not done these types of projects in the camps and they did not have an idea of the issues that could arise. OBAT was unable to identify these issues ahead of time, either. By the time they surfaced, too much time had elapsed and money had been invested. Financial repercussions did not allow OBAT to proceed further with the project.
Many lessons were learnt from this project. We learned that before initiating a project that requires participation and input from the community, we have to build an understanding for the objectives of the project and the process amongst them. We should have created a clear understanding of what the outcome of the project would be and what difference it would make in the lives of the camp residents. Things could have gone a lot more smoothly if the camp residents were involved in the process as well. When we decided to partner with PARAA, we relied too heavily on them and did not do the needful on our part.
Henceforth, OBAT will use a different approach with its partners, one that involves better coordination and greater involvement during the initial strategic planning meetings. We will also ensure close monitoring during the operation of the project to ensure that the project is proceeding as planned and any problems can be addressed as they arise. Any mistake is a good one as long as it is considered a learning experience and used to build better programs in the future.
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