Chinnomulder Pashe Amra (CPA), a youth-led non-profit platform, has been helping the marginalized and the jobless people amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The 10-member organisation has so far worked in phases since March, collaborating with other voluntary organisations.
In the first project, CPA along with two other voluntary organizations distributed food packages and cooked meals to the street children in Dhaka city in March. As many as 646 children benefited from it during the lockdown.
In the second and the third phases, CPA provided cash and food assistance to 800 families to the flood and cyclone Amphan-affected people in 12 districts, including Sunamganj, Dinajpur, Netrokona, Kurigram, Bandarban, and Bhola.
In a unique initiative, CPA and another voluntary organization provide financial assistance to three kindergartens in Ibrahimpur, Kafrul and Mirpur of Dhaka to help them prevent from shutting down in the fallout of coronavirus pandemic.
They co-financed the purchase of a refrigerator for a kindergarten in Mirpur to help the school run a department store to bear the necessary cost.
CPA also launched Project Dikkha to provide quality education to the marginalized children of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) with the aim to seek Sustainable Development Goal 4 – ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education for all.
Some 300 children living in remote areas of Bandarban, especially Thanchi, will be receiving educational materials, library and boarding facilities, and scholarship between November 2020 and January 2021. Besides, they will also get mental health guidance.
When the winter began, CPA initiated Project Ushnota late November. They provided quilts to 40 elderly women at an old home ‘Uday Mother and Child Rehabilitation Centre in Kushtia. Besides, fundraise is also on to donate warm clothes to senior citizens in Kulaghat union of Lalmonirhat’s Sadar upazila.
CPA cofounder Lamia Mohsin said their mission is to create a nationwide network of volunteers, who are driven by the spirit of voluntarism, social welfare and human wellbeing.
“Our vision is to extend a helping hand to those who need it, irrespective of their socio-economic, religious, ethnic, cultural, or gender orientation,” said another cofounder Ashik Sufi Islam, who is a fourth-year student of Development Studies department at the University of Dhaka.
Lamia said their primary focus will always be the children since the first step to social change is empowering children, who are the youth of tomorrow.
“We plan to expand the reach of our projects to all 64 districts in Bangladesh in the future,” said Lamia, who is a junior consultant at United Nations Development Programme.
