Bangladesh Roadside Tree Plantation

Dear Friends,

Five kilometers of roadside trees were planted in mid-2017 and poor rural women were hired as caretakers for the trees. The two photographs with this report show the work of Jahan on the roadside in Panch Deoli village of Sherpur Bogra. The information below is about her family’s economic situation, what the employment and income means for them and what their dreams are for the income still to come from the three years of employment.

Jahan (65) wife of late Chan lives in Panch Deoli village, Sherpur upazila in Bogra district. She has been hired to care for the trees on the road near her home. She is from an extreme hard core poor family (serious food insecurity). Twenty years before the government resettled 80 families on government land around a big pond. Her husband used to make and sell handicrafts. In 2000, he died when her daughter Popi was eleven years old. Jahan begged door to door to survive. She could manage two meals in a day and could not afford minimum treatment facilities. She and her daughter managed old clothes from other people to wear. When Popi became seventeen years old, she got married to Shorif from a neighboring house. Popi and her husband left for Dhaka and stayed there for one and a half years, then she came back to her home area. She gave birth to a child named Taher. Jahan’s son-in-law Shorif drives a bicycle rickshaw in Dhaka city. Each 2/3 months he visits his family in the village and provides ten k.g. rice and 200-300 Taka. His support is not sufficient for Jahan’s family. At present she has six hens. She has no goats or cows to rear. She has no scope for economic development. Her house condition badly needs repair.

Jahan has been working as a caretaker for the roadside plantation. Last seven months she received US$ 123 from her work. Now she can arrange three meals per day now and can manage minimum treatment cost. She hopes to stay healthy next three years; then she could be able to repair her house and could buy a calf to rear for the family’s economic development.