Diyara is a small village located in Teligati Union under Netrakona district. The village is quite far away from municipal cities and district towns leading the inhabitants to be deprived from some basic civic rights and facilities compared to other villages in the area. The Inhabitants of this village are poor, most of them dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. The problem list of the villagers is quite long but problem associated with fresh drinking and household water is immense. People suffer a lot to get a drop of fresh water for their household. Fresh water crisis also has intensified the other correlated problems of the villagers. So far, no government and NGOs come forward to ease the fresh water problems of villagers but the youth community of this village. The youth of the village has recently formed an association to address the problems of their village. They discuss about their problems and the possible solutions of those problems. It is through the sincere effort and love for their village that lead the members of the association taking the following roles to ease the problems of their village.
Educating children and supporting poor students
Being located in the remote area, children do not feel free to go to school. The drop out rate is thus very high at the village not only because of reluctance of children going to schools but also lack of consciousness among the parents. Realizing the truth, member of the association motivate both children and parents and tell them about the ill impact of being illiterate. Thus today almost 100% of the children from the village go to school. The association also tries it best to provide a minimum stipend for the poor children to ensure that no student drops out from the class. The members of the association buy them books, pens, pencils and dress with their accumulated fund for their association.
Serving the helpless and patients
The members of the association also play vital role to serve the sick and helpless people of their village. Incase of any patient found without treatment, the members of the association raise fund from others and themselves and ensure the treatment of the poor patient. There is a health complex near the village but doctors are seldom seen there leading the villagers to suffer from health problem. The members of the association communicate with the administration and ask the reason why doctors are not seen to sit in the health complex. The youth association hopes that soon doctors will sit in the complex to serve the villagers.
Providing agricultural supports
The members of the association also take initiative to solve the agricultural problems of the villagers. In order to ensure crop cultivation in fallow lands as well as Boro rice, the members of the association take initiative to provide water by their own ways. Thus 132 Katha fallow lands came under cultivation this year. They also motivate farmers to conserve seeds of their own and reduce dependency on chemicals by initiating indigenous knowledge based sustainable agriculture.
Providing social awareness
The youth association also takes initiative to aware the villagers regarding the contemporary issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, aggression of commercial agriculture, global warming etc being attached with BARCIK. Thus this year, with the facilitation of BARCIK the association organized program to mark the world water day where people of nearby village such as Sreepur, Amati and Sreerampur participated and gained knowledge about the importance of preserving fresh water sources.
Reviving the almost extinct culture and tradition
The association has formed a committee of 12 members who exchange labor to each other. If a farmer fails to farm crops due to lack of labor, the 12 members of the committee help him to get his lands prepared and cultivated. In previous time, this sort of practice seen among the farmers helping each other but due to the aggression of commercial agriculture the culture of exchanging labor has almost disappeared. However, the member of the association through forming the committee of 12 members has somehow revived the culture. It is needless to say that if initiative is taken in an integral way and all get involved in the process with sincerity and honesty to complete the mission good result cannot but come. Diyara youth association has proved it.
By: Joba Talukder, Netrakona
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