Concern Northern Ireland visits Bangladesh
Monday, 4 February 2008
Karen Gallagher from Concern's Belfast office has returned from a field visit to Bangladesh, where she visited a range of long term projects and viewed some of the work taking place in the wake of devastating Cyclone Sidr.
Karen’s visit was hosted by Concern Country Director Kieron Crawley, who is himself from Bangor, Northern Ireland. Kieron has been heading up the team of around 260 staff in Bangladesh for over a year, during which time serious floods struck alongside the cyclone. As part of its response to this, Concern provided aid to 75,000 people.
As well as disaster planning and relief work, education was a major theme of Karen’s visit. This element of Concern’s country programme is coordinated by Shamima Tasmim, who visited Concern Northern Ireland in September to speak with a number of donors and partners. Shamima Tasmim works in Bangladesh to deliver quality education to children from extremely poor families – access is free, but teaching is underfunded and ineffective in many areas.
Bangladesh is the longest established country of operation for Concern, having worked there since the country was established in 1971. It is the world’s most densely populated country and is extremely vulnerable to natural hazards. As a result, disaster risk reduction is a key element of Concern’s work.
