Rural Housing Loan

As a consequence of ever increasing population, the rural housing problem is becoming acute day by day. While many people have no house of their own to live in; a great majority of the poor families have barely a single room thatched house for all purposes of cooking, dinning, sleeping - leave aside the question of any standard.

The dilapidated conditions of their houses symbolize their poverty and inability to spare money for the purpose. While sufferings of the poor on this account are imaginable, SSS recognizes the consequential profound impact thereof on their health and productivity. So, SSS considers it urgently needed to support its members building their own house to live in peace.

To assist the rural community to cope with the situation, SSS with financial assistance from Bangladesh Bank has introduced loan provisions for house building on easy terms. The loan size is usually TK 20000/- repayable in a period of ten years. The interest rate for such loans is 5% on declining basis.

Agricultural Credit Programme

Agriculture is the main stay of rural population. Also the contribution of agriculture to the national economy is significant. Use of innovative technologies in agriculture is vitally important from the viewpoints of its benefits in terms of increased yields. Crop diversification and intensification are the means to enhance production from limited cultivable land. But for paucity of capital, majority of rural farmers cannot afford adoption of improved technologies and neither they can go for intensification and diversification.

SSS with financial support from IFAD funded Agricultural Diversification and Intensification Project implemented by Department of Agricultural Extension has been providing support to organized group of farmer
Goat Rearing Loan Programme

From time immemorial women are involved in livestock rearing and goat rearing by rural poor women is considered as a good source of their income. But for the reason that pastures are fast dwindling due to ever increasing population. Added to that, modern rearing practices are not being disseminated among the rural women, the goat rearing in Bangladesh is gradually declining. But it is both a suitable and profitable activity for the rural women and a good source of protein for the nation.

Recently, the present government has attached importance to the issue and has undertaken a goat rearing promotional programme by providing training on modern rearing practices followed by the provision for credit.

Credit Support to Sex Workers' Self-employment

There is a brothel of about 200 years at Kandapara in Tangail town where there are more than 1100 prostitutes at present. They have, in all, over 300 children; 50 % of them being female child and viewed as the prospective prostitutes. On the other hand, the male children are unwanted and deprived of due care and childhood rights. The consequence is frustration and derailment and engagement in unsocial activities.

Studies have revealed that most of the mothers want their children to be brought and rehabilitated otherwise. Proper motivation at mothers' level, followed by withdrawal of the children from the brothel environment, arrangements for education and placement in jobs is the right answer to the situation.

SSS has undertaken a programme of rehabilitation of such children along with support to their mothers to leave prostitution for socially approvable activities with good income potential. Freeing the prostitutes from the bondage of moneylenders is also an objective of this programme.

Started on experimental basis, SSS by now has brought 120 sex workers of Kanadapara brothel under this program.