Bangladesh Roadside Tree Plantation

In 2017, PEP was able to plant 5 kilometers of new roadsides. All 5 kilometers were in Bogra district in the northwest of the country. One kilometer was specified as a memorial plantation for Kevin Cundiff of Washington Missouri, USA who died at the age of 63. A school friend of his, Bill Genova, made the donation for the one kilometer and memorial stone. A picture is attached.

In June of this year, PEP is planning presently to plant 10 more kilometers of roadsides. Two of these kilometers will again be in the Bogra area. Two of the long-time social workers of PEP died during 2017 and the memorials will be in their memory. Both workers were aged only 35. One had been in good health but was visiting home, had a stroke and died suddenly. The 2^nd worker had been working mostly in forsestation and had worked a few years in Oman, returning to rejoin PEP. With the memorial stones, all PEP workers are keeping the families of these two fine workers in their prayers.

Tom Priesmeyer, now of Nashville Tennessee in the USA, as a high school student in St. Louis, had been in the class of the PEP Founder and has remained a generous donor together with his wife Donna. Tom has donated for one kilometer to be a memorial plantation for his mother, Alyce, who had died in 1960, aged only 43. She had suffered from rheumatic fever as a child and it damaged her heart. Tom was only about 7 years old when his mother died. The roadside memorial for her will be in K-Gati union of Netrokona.

There are presently 8 kilometers planned in the Netrokona area. 6 kilometers will be in K-Gati union. A photo of the section of the road is shown below. There will also be 2 kilometers of roadsides in Medni union, to the south of K-Gati; a section of this roadside is also shown below.

The plantations are expected to be established in June, the early part of the rainy season. Along with the 10 kilometers new plantations, there will be gap filling for the 5 kilometers planted in Bogra in 2017 to replace trees that had been damaged or died.

Jahan who is now over 65 years old, lost her husband Chan about 11 years ago; he was suffering from paralysis for last 8 years. Chan used to make different handcrafts with bamboo and cane. Jahan has a daughter named Popi (24), who had married a man named Shofi about 6 years ago, who is from her nearby village. Shofi drives a rickshaw in Dhaka city, visits home once in every 2/3 months and provides ten k.g. rice and Tk. 200-300. His support is not sufficient for Jahan’s family. Popi lives with her mother as Shofi stays most of the time in Dhaka. Popi has a son named Taher (4.5).

Jahan and her family live in what is called a “Gucho Gram”. This is a government resettlement project of 80 families landless families who have been resettled here. She has no other land and only a small thatch house. She had been begging in villages to get food to feed herself, her daughter and granddaughter. From July 12, 2017, she became an employee of PEP to care for the trees on the roadside near her home and receives Tk. 1,500 ($18.75) payment per month. Over three years this will amount to Tk. 54,000 ($675) and Jahan plans to purchase a young female calf with about Tk. 25,000 ($312.50) and raise it, so that the family will have ongoing income in the future. The rest of her income would be used for family expenses.