changing lives bangladesh

8/2/2019 Changing Lives Bangladesh

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This case study is one o a series o qualitative reviews called “IPPF Changinglives” which capture the stories o IPPF’sbenefciaries and clients rom around the world. A rapid PEER (participatory ethnographic evaluation and research)1 approach was used to train project benefciaries to interview people in their social network. These voices provide us with powerul testimonies on lives changed - in some cases, lives saved - and illustrate how

IPPF is making a dierence.

The Combating Gender-Based Violence duringPregnancy project signicantly changed the livesof many women and girls in the Comilla districtof Bangladesh who had experienced physicaland emotional abuse from their husbands and/ormothers-in-law. They were often living in situationsof extreme poverty, with little formal educationand were isolated from family and social supportnetworks. Early marriage was another issue thathad negatively impacted on their rights, educationand reproductive health.

1 www.options.co.uk/peer

The project – implemented by Family PlanningAssociation of Bangladesh (FPAB) – focused onraising awareness about gender-based violence(GBV) and supporting vulnerable women byproviding access to health and legal services andopportunities to enhance their nancial self-sufciency. The project provided training andsupport to women - and also to some men - onwomen’s reproductive health, women’s rights,GBV issues and early marriage.

Other activities included nancial support for girls’study and referral to legal services. Three survivors’support groups were established to identify GBVsurvivors, refer them to FPAB for support servicesand hold meetings for mutual support andawareness raising. Three caretaker groups wereestablished to prevent GBV through detection andreferral of cases.

Although the initial project funding period hasended, the benets have continued through theongoing groups, and through the continuation ofpartners’ activities.

Family Planning Association of Bangladesh: Combating gender-

based violence during pregnancy

Now I am happy.I have ound something tolook orward to. When I wasmarried I could

not talk – now I can talk about my wishes and rights.Benefciary

Voices from Bangladesh

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http://www.options.co.uk/peer










My ather orced me to marry when I

was 13. My husband was 32. I was tortured every day – but was scared to protest.I took up a loan and set up a poultry

arm... Once my husband saw meearning, he started respecting memore. … My husband says: ‘Sheis now independent

– I cannot doanything to her!’ Benefciary

IPPF Changing lives 2010: Issue 2 - Voices from Bangladesh

Achievements

The project has had a signicantimpact on the lives of a range of

beneciaries, including those mostoppressed by GBV: the girls and womenwho were most subjugated by socialnorms which limited their ability tospeak out and denounce unjust andinhumane treatment. Young girls alsobeneted through the prevention ofearly marriage. In addition, the projectreached some men who reportedchanges in their own behaviour throughincreased awareness of women’s rightsand the damage caused by GBV.

The project has made signicantchanges to women beneciaries’lives by providing increased access tolegal and nancial support, vocationaltraining and loans, community-basedadvocacy and increased awarenessof women’s rights, which have raisedwomen’s status, both in their own eyesand in the eyes of the community.

FPAB provided women with accessto legal support through referringwomen to its partner Bangladesh Legal

Aid and Services Trust (BLAST). Thisenabled women to take violent andnon-supportive husbands to court toobtain restraining orders and nancialsupport for themselves and theirchildren. One woman who had beenabused by her drug-using husband andmother-in-law described how access tolegal support changed her life: “[FPAB]helped me with legal support. We tookmy husband to court and my husbandapologized. He signed a paper in frontof the judge agreeing that he will not

take drugs and will provide for thefamily (…) Now he is better. He providesfor me and my children.”

Another major achievement wasincreasing women’s knowledge andunderstanding of their rights. Thisknowledge enabled women to makeinformed decisions about whether tosettle domestic disputes out of court,demand a full trial, or return to theirhusbands. It also resulted in abusivehusbands being required to pay child

support after women had left them.Women’s increased knowledge of theirrights, combined with access to legalsupport, substantially improved theirphysical safety, emotional wellbeing and

status within the household. For some,it even improved their mobility withinthe community. Before the project,many women said that they had to stay

at home and were forbidden by theirhusbands to go out, even when theyneeded medical care.

The project also increased women’saccess to health facilities, includingsexual and reproductive healthfacilities, by educating women andtheir husbands on the importance ofantenatal care, and by training FPABstaff to recognize health problemsand refer them to appropriate healthservices.

One of the key practical differences thatthe project made to women’s lives wasproviding skills and vocational trainingto women who had experienced GBV.Training was accompanied by loanswhich enabled women to converttheir newly acquired knowledgeinto income generating activities orformal employment. In some cases,women became the main earner in thehousehold. Income generating skills alsoserved to protect women from GBV by

making them more highly valued andrespected members of the household.

The project also signicantly changedthe lives of girls in Comilla throughthe prevention of early marriage andby promoting the importance of girls’education. The project campaignedto end early marriage and theseefforts meant that early marriage wasprevented in many instances.

Men’s lives were also changed as a

result of the project. Men who attendedproject meetings learned that GBV wasa violation of women’s rights and werealso told about the effect of GBV ontheir children. They learned about howGBV can be a pattern of behaviourpassed on from one generation toanother. Men who participated in theproject reported that they had becomeadvocates for women experiencingGBV. They also acted as communityeducators, teaching other men thatviolent and abusive behaviour towards

women, and early marriage for girls,were no longer considered to beacceptable.



On Fridays

[leading the prayer meeting], I talk about women’srights – early marriage, wie’srespect. We have seen a lot o

changes in the last fve years.Imam

I realized throughthe training that

when I stopped my wie rom goingoutside alone, did not provide enoughood, or wasabusive to her – all were acts o

violence. ... It will never happenagain.40-year old husband

2010: Issue 2 - Voices from Bangladesh IPPF Changing lives

Another major achievement of theproject was the change in staffattitudes and behaviours. Several malestaff members involved in the project

reported that following involvement inthe GBV project, they had re-examinedtheir own attitudes and behaviours andhad changed the way they related totheir wives.

Challenges

One challenge the project faced wasthe difculty of trying to changeattitudes and secure justice when manystructural issues conspired against thisgoal. Structural forces – such as the law

enforcement system and high levelsof poverty – upon which the projectcould have little impact, made its workespecially challenging. Also, changingthe attitudes and behaviour of localstakeholders, such as teachers andreligious leaders, proved to be a slowand sometimes difcult process.

Another challenge was that some stafffelt, or were actually, threatened bypeople in the community who objectedto them working on issues of GBV and

women’s rights, and some individualswere bribed by inuential people todrop cases.

Creating long term positive change isa potential challenge for the project,and it is not yet clear how successfulthe project has been in creating longterm changes in gender relationsand families’ treatment of women.Interestingly, the majority of womeninterviewed had chosen to return totheir formerly abusive husbands. This

might seem surprising consideringthe extreme cruelty often suffered;however, it has to be understood inthe cultural context of the project area.Women’s return to their husband waspartly due to the stigma and nancialhardship faced by female headedhouseholds. In addition, many of thesewomen emphasized the satisfactionthey felt at having regained the rightto reside with their children in thehouse of the husband’s family, and athaving become economically solvent,

something that may, in the long run,ensure their protection from GBV.

Lessons

The project strategy of intensive, onthe ground coverage, which included

building strong relationships withinlocal communities, was undoubtedlysuccessful in reaching the mostvulnerable women affected by GBV,including schoolgirls at risk of earlymarriage. The messages of the projectwere largely spread through a peer-to-peer approach, by training womenwithin the community, including anumber of traditional birth attendants,who subsequently discussed GBV-related issues with other communitymembers. Local leaders, including

teachers and religious leaders, alsospread the project’s messages in theirown arenas of inuence, includingschools and mosques. This personalapproach to initiating engagementfacilitated the development of mutualtrust and respect between project staff,volunteers and community members.It also motivated male and femalevolunteers to remain active and involvedin the project.

Another important approach used to

reach and support vulnerable womenwas through strategic partnershipswith specialized legal, training andmicrocredit organizations. Access tothese specialized services throughthe project led to signicant changefor women and girls. Working as anindividual organization, FPAB wouldnot have been able to provide the samelevel of support to these women.

The project’s community groups (thecaretaker groups and survivor support

groups) are an example of a successful,innovative and thus far sustainablestrategy. They require the activeparticipation of local people includingcommunity leaders, religious authoritiesand women affected by GBV. Groupmembers’ enthusiasm and commitmentare the key drivers of changingattitudes.

The project’s broad-based approachand engagement with multiplestakeholders - particularly at the

community level - has led to a reportedreduction in GBV towards womenby husbands and mothers-in-law inComilla.



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She never knew beore i she had any rights as awie. She came to learn, and now she can make her husband know the rights o women. This is a major change. She can make her own decisions, moveanywhere – give advice to other women.

Peer interviewer

Family Planning Association of

Bangladesh2, Naya PaltanDhaka-1000Bangladeshwww.fpab.org

International Planned Parenthood Federation

4 Newhams RowLondon, SE1 [email protected] Registered Charity No. 229476

Bangladesh1

Country context

Population (millions), 2007 157.8

Adult illiteracy rate (% aged 15 and above), 1999-2007 46.5

Population living below the national poverty line (%), 2000-2006 40.0

Life expectancy at birth (years), 2007 65.7

Context for women

Female adult illiteracy rate (% aged 15 and above), 1999-2007 52.0

Earned income (estimated) (ratio of female to male), 2007 0.51

Ever-married women (aged 15-49) who have experienced sexual and/or physicalviolence (%), 2007

53.02

Females (aged 6 and above, urban population) with no education (%), 2007 22.0

Females (aged 6 and above, rural population) with no education (%), 2007 32.0

Seats in parliament (% held by women), 2008 6.0

1 UNDP, Human Development Report 2009, (Website, accessed on 22-03-10).2 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, (Website, accessed on 22-03-10).

The International Planned Parenthood Federation is global service provider anda leading advocate of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all. We are aworldwide movement of national organizations working with and for communitiesand individuals.

changing lives bangladesh

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