| Skills Development |
| |
 | ECHO helps with employable skills training for those in Bangladesh who otherwise would have very little employment prospects |
| Many of those are no less smart than the youth here in the United States but sadly have to drop out of school due to financial difficulties. |
| Currently training is provided in mobile phone servicing, computers, electrical wiring, automobile driving and auto mechanics, refrigeration, sewing, knitting machine operation, etc. |
| ECHO has over 90% graduation rate from these training courses, however the real metric of success ought to be number of graduates employed. |
| To this end, ECHO has started focusing on finding jobs for the graduates and in many cases helping the students start their own businesses. |
| One of the benefits of ECHO’s job placement effort is the feedback we receive from the local industries on their needs. |
| This has directly resulted in establishing a training course on operating linking and knitting machines in the burgeoning garments industry in Bangladesh. |
| While the overall employment rate of ECHO’s skill training graduates has averaged around 60%, the employment rate for linking and knitting students has been an astonishing 100% – a great success story. We learn from our shortcomings and successes. |
| Going forward, ECHO will be focusing on strengthening its job placement services and also fine tune its training to meet the local demand for skilled resources. |
| |
| Stipend |
| |
| Every year, a few thousand highly qualified students apply for ECHO scholarships through our sister organization, Muslim Aid Bangladesh. |
| This year, we were able to provide high school, college, and university scholarships to 250 students. |
| About 90% of the stipend recipients come from families earning less than $5USD a day. While this statistic is heart-wrenching, these students are still incredibly ambitious and with a little assistance, they too can have the opportunity to achieve their academic goals. |
| stipend as small as $200USD can cover much of the tuition and housing costs for a student attending a public university in Bangladesh. |
| |
| Students’ Feedback |
| |
| Mr. Abdur Rashid, a 9th grade student from the southern district of Cox’s Bazar. Mr. Rashid lost his mother and lives with his uncle who finds it hard to make ends meet and provide for his own family. While speaking to Mr. Rashid’s uncle, he told ECHO that he was extremely grateful for the $75USD stipend his nephew had received to cover his academic costs for an entire year in that part of rural Bangladesh. |
| Mr. Salim-ul Alam, an undergraduate student in Information and Communications at Islamic University in the district of Kushtia, informed ECHO that he was at the top of his class of 40 students. |
| Another incredibly bright student Ms. Ananya Sharmin, a vision-impaired undergraduate student at Eden Mohilla College in Dhaka, Bangladesh. With the help of the ECHO stipend for the last few years, Ms. Sharmin has maintained the top rank in her class for Islamic Studies, despite her physical limitations. It is incredibly heart-warming to see that ECHO’s humble scholarship is making such a huge difference in her life. |
| Ms. Humayra Rashid, a third year architecture student from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). ECHO’s stipend of $130USD was enough to cover the cost of 2 meals a day at a dorm in BUET for one whole year. It is amazing how such a small donation can go so far to help a student in almost any government school in Bangladesh.Ms. Rashid, ECHO’s only scholarship recipient available through email, said the following regarding her progress: “Thanks [to] ECHO for the scholarship - I will buy some of my necessary books. The original books are so expensive here that I couldn’t afford it. Here is a good news that I wanted to share with you - I have won the Berger Travel Grant Award ’09 this year. It is an award for the students of Architecture given by Berger Paints Ltd. Students travel, survey and study on different topics in different places with the award money. We are a group of three and our topic is ‘Living Green: Study on the Energy Efficient Buildings in India.’” |
| | |
| | |
| |
| Healthcare |
| |
| ECHO has established three projects under the umbrella project of Healthcare and Emergency Relief. These projects include providing healthcare for mothers and their children, arsenic-free drinking water and sanitation facilities, and emergency relief during natural disasters. |
| In order to provide underprivileged mothers and their children with preventive and curative care, ECHO established the Satellite Health Center in Pallabi, Mirpur, Bangladesh. Additionally, the center provides health and nutrition education, HIV/AIDS awareness, and pre- and post-natal care. |
| In fact, in 2007, a UNICEF study found that only 51% and 18% of women receive pre- and post-natal care, respectively, in Bangladesh. This study also showed that 41% of children under the age of 5 are underweight and that there is a 0.061% mortality rate for children in this age group. Thus, the need for a Healthcare and Emergency Relief project is imperative to helping out the economically disadvantaged in Bangladesh. |
| To improve these statistics and the overall healthcare in Bangladesh, ECHO’s Satellite Heath Center not only provides services to treat illnesses, but also provides diagnostic services, including ultra sonograms and routine blood, urine and stool tests. |
| Patients are also provided with free medicine and Vitamin A supplements. All of these services are possible with just one doctor, one lab technician, one nurse, and one field worker. |
| Because of the generosity of our donors, we have been able to greatly increase the number of beneficiaries of this project over the years. |
| In the year 2005-2006, ECHO was able to provide healthcare for 1,050 mothers and 1,600 children. Just 3 years later, ECHO raised that number to 4,564 mothers and 3,995 children. During this same time period, the amount of free medicine distributed by ECHO increased from a value of $1,691USD to $4,093USD. |
| The Satellite Health Center also runs a Cataract Eye Surgery center in Rangpur. Through the generous contributions of one donor family, this center is able to provide surgeries to over 200 poor elderly patients annually. |
| According to the 2007 study done by UNICEF, only 32% of the population in Bangladesh had improved sanitation facilities. ECHO felt the need to work towards improving this situation and providing healthcare facilities to the people in the village under poverty. |
| In the 2009-2010 project year, ECHO has provided 50 toilets used by many local residents in Potuakhali, Bangladesh, as well as providing orientation and training programs to create sanitation awareness. |
| ECHO also provided safe arsenic-free drinking water through the installation of 10 deep tube wells. The cost of these projects was a combined total of about $13,000USD. |
| To provide emergency relief for the victims of the 2007 SIDR cyclone, ECHO donated over $25,000USD for the rehabilitation of displaced people, and to repair 5 schools, establish 15 shelters, and over 10 toilets. |
| ECHO’s future goals for its Healthcare and Emergency Relief projects include expanding mother and child care units, increasing the awareness of HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh, and increasing the number of cataract eye surgeries. It is only through the donations of our generous donors that this will be possible. |
| |
| Patient’s Feedback |
| |
| One of the beneficiaries of the Satellite Health Center is Mrs. Nurun Nahar and her family. Mrs. Nahar’s husband, Mr. Mohammad Kalam, recently lost his job as a municipal guard. With their only source of income coming from designing saris, Mrs. Nahar and her family of four could not bear the cost of healthcare, and turned to ECHO for free treatment and medicine. |
| Mrs. Jahanara Begum and her husband, Mr. Abul Hussein, own a small shop selling various types of seasonal fruits. Had it not been for the generosity of our donors, they too would have been unable to afford the luxuries (yet basic human right) of healthcare from their small income. |
| |
| Orphanage |
| |
| The architectural design of an orphanage for 50 girls in Savar, Dhaka is almost complete. |
| It will be a state-of-the-art facility of its kind on a 10,000 sq.ft. building and attached school. |
| Permissions from Rajuk and other government bodies are in progress. |
| Groundbreaking ceremony has been scheduled. |
| The half an acre land in Savar was donated by an extremely generous family in Dhaka, Bangladesh. |
| ECHO is partnering with GiveLight Foundation and Donor family in Dhaka to develop and run the orphanage |
| Ingredients for success: (1) sincerity of intention, (2) willingness to work hard, and (3) reliance on a higher power. |