DHARA 3.32

A. Profile of DHARA
Development of Health & Agriculture Rehabilitation Advancement (DHARA) is a women headed national NGO committed to promote ‘women led women development’. It was established by a group of educated and like-minded female social workers to address the conditions of vulnerability of the disadvantaged women & children in particular by establishing partnerships for identification and implementation of community interventions that are financially, technologically and environmentally efficient and thus contribute to achieving sustainable poverty reduction.

Year of Establishment: 2001

Legal status: Registered, as a non-profit and non-governmental organization with the Government:

No. Department Registration No Date
1. Department of Women’s Affairs MBA-218 18-01-2003
2. Development of Youth 45/2004 03-04-2004
3. NGO Affairs Bureau 2216 3-4-2007
4. Europea ID(Pador) BD-2009-FSP-2601926582

Mailing Address: 68, City College Para, Jessore, Bangladesh
Telephone: +88-0421- 69064 (Land) and 01714-849307. (Cell)
E-mail: dharabd@yahoo.com lipika.dhara@gmail

Contact Person: Lipika Das Gupta, Executive Director.

B. Mission and objectives
Mission: Serve the needs of women to reduce their relatively higher vulnerability to poverty, disaster and climate change by equipping them with skills, knowledge, opportunity and access to decision-making and through this, empower them to also accelerate sustainable living by the disadvantaged poor communities.

Objective: In fulfilling our mission, the objective of DHARA is to:
• Promote human rights, awareness and motivation
o Democracy and human rights
o Family laws, women trafficking, etc.
o Children’s rights
o Hygiene promotion, with particular reference to adolescent girl, mother and child
o STDs and HIV/AIDS
o Drama, by the children of the beneficiaries
o Inter/national days observance
• Improve access to basic services
o Health: Mother & Child Healthcare (MCH) and primary healthcare services.
o Water & sanitation: Safe drinking water, toilet and eco-toilet.
o Education: Non-formal primary education and adult literacy
o Agriculture, aquaculture and nursery: Food security through improved access to quality seeds, flood and saline water resilient crop seeds, production and storage
o Shelter: Low-cost, flood resilient, and cyclone resistant housing
o Energy: Improved solar home systems, bio-fuel, Improved Cook Stove (ICS), biogas, etc.
• Strengthen capacity to generate income & livelihood
Skills development and support for various farm and non-farm Income Generating Activities (IGAs).
• Develop access to alternative micro-finance
Women groups to mobilize resources and lend to members for IGAs at nominal interest or service charge. The group leaders are provided with training, e.g., for book keeping, operating bank account, establishing service charge, etc.
• Promote climate change adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
Resilient crops, housing, water & sanitation, etc. .
• Address special groups
Minority and socio-culturally isolated groups, e.g., the ‘untouchables’, popularly known as Harijan or Dalit, and disabled people and the families with disabled member(s) for whom special provisions are made in all activities.

• Promote access to local governance
Access to: (a) decision-making in the systems of local governance, and (b) services, delivered by various specialized agencies of the Government, such as, Department of Social Welfare, Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC), Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), and Department of Health to secure improved access to services by the majority poor.

C. Governance
DHARA is governed by following three committees:
• General Committee: The General Committee (GC) is constituted and comprised of 35 members. As per
the constitution, this committee is the policy making & policy changing authority of the organization. In GC meeting, Programme activities, success & failure are discussed. Program approval (Budget) is given by GC including its finance.
• Advisory Committee: The Advisory Committee (AC) is comprised of 5 members and selected
amongst the GC Members. This committee advises the Ececutive Committee on organizational development, including programming and operations & management.
• Executive Committee: The Executive Committee (EC) is comprised of 9 members, elected every 5 years
by the GC. As per the constitution, the Member – Secretary of the EC acts as the Executive Director of the organization. S/he is the executive head of the organization, directly accountable to the GC for policy, planning, and operations & management of programme implementation, HR, financial management, audit, reporting, etc. as per the constitution, as well as the laws and rules & regulations of the Government.

D. No. of staff
Description Nos.
Male Female Total
1. Full –time paid staffs 9 12 21
2. Incentive paid volunteer workers 5 35 40
Total: 14 47 61
NOTE: The list above does not include the MCH Hospital staff to be appointed during May-June, 2012.

E. Working area
Division District Sub-district Municipality/Union Ward/Village
1. Khulna 1. Jessore Urban: Jessore
Rural: Monirumpur,
Bagharpara,Sharsha,Jhikorgacha • 1 Municipality
• 4 Sub-districts • 6 Wards
• 75 villages in 7 Unions
2. Satkhira 2. Shyamnagar • 5 Unions: Atulia,Padmapukur,Burigoalini,Gabura,Munsigang • 60 villages
Head office: 68, City College Para, Jessore, Bangladesh
Telephone: +88-0421- 69064 (Land) and 01714-849307.(Cell)
E-mail: dharabd@yahoo.com
Field offices: Monirumpur, Bagharpara,Sharsha,Jhikorgacha Jessore); and, Autila (Union), under Shyamnagar (sub-district) of Satkhira (district).