Bangladesh

Conscience: a treasure of mankind

In the middle of the field, an old boat is attached to a post. When there are floods, the family takes refuge in the small craft taking food and water with them. In general, the floods do not last long. The boat rises and then descends over a period of a few days, at best. However, anything can happen and in truth, there seems to be no end to the ill fortune of this country.

There have been natural and climatic disasters, such as the famine which caused the death of 3,500,000 people in 1943-1944, the cyclone of 29 April 1991 – the eighteenth of its kind in 26 years – with winds of 235 km/hour causing the death of 139,000 people. In Bangladesh, when the rainy season is over, the cyclone season starts. When all goes well during 18 months, 20% of the area of the country is under water. When everything goes badly, up to 60% of the country is flooded. This is a measure of the tribulations that befall the 156 million people who live in a country one-quarter the size of France, criss-crossed by three hundred rivers as wide as the Rhine at Strasbourg. The rivers flow along at the rhythm of the floods, making land disappear and, in theory, creating new public areas.

Tomorrow, will there be a new phenomenon to add to their woes: the rising of the sea water, through global warming? The country is directly threatened due to its low altitude: between five and ten meters above sea level.

They are fully aware of the dismal fate that leads nowhere that the West reserves for political refugees, so the Bangladeshis hold out no hope for the status of ‘climate refugees’. They will have to manage on their own.

There are political tribulations too: independence was fought for ferociously and acquired in 1971, resulting in 30 million victims on both sides, Western Pakistan and Eastern Pakistan which then became Bangladesh, with the support of India. After the military regime of General Ershad was overthrown in 1990, the country came under a parliamentary regime but there is significant tension. In January, 2009, the European Union was pleased with how the legislative elections were run and with the appointment of Mme Sheikh Hasina as prime minister. She is encouraging the newly elected authorities to proceed with a certain number of reforms pledged by the interim government, notably with regard to the Anti-corruption Commission, the National Commission for Human Rights, as well as issues relating to minorities and refugees.

Economic and social tribulations: Bangladesh is still one of the most destitute countries, occupying the 140^th position in the Human Development Index¹ in 2008. Some 67% of peasants have no land, compared with 31% at independence, in 1971. This development is the result of indebtedness and corruption: the khas, public land destined for the poor, have been taken over by the wealthier people. Half of the inhabitants live beneath the poverty threshold. Bangladesh is also one of the most corrupt countries, last in the world listing of Transparency International.

Bangladesh suffers from rains, monsoons, cyclones, flooding, overpopulation, landless peasants … in brief, all the problems that from our point of view appear to be insoluble. All this has led Moktar Ahmad Chowdhury, a mainstay of Caritas Bangladesh, to state, “I would like to go to Europe. Here we have fertile land, just as in your country, but we are poor. I would really like to know the reason why.” He is a personality in the region of Pekua near Chittagong in the south-east of the country. Arriving in the village, it is impossible to make a mistake: at the end of the square stands a house made of carved wood. A covered walkway encircles the residence, providing a restful and shady area. His property measures 30 hectares; he has proposed to his 40 tenant farmers to divide the harvest in two and share it equally, whereas typically in the region, the percentage is two-thirds for the owner and one-third for the people working the land. Encouraged by this, the tenant farmers produce better quality produce and in greater quantities and can thus send their children to school. It is not enough for Moktar Ahmad Chowdhury to twist the economic mechanisms, he has also transformed part of his property into a field hospital, he encourages education, creates mutual societies and cooperatives, and has organised agricultural competitions and a football championship to stimulate the region. His motto is inspired by the Koran, “The best man is the person who enables other men to save themselves.”

At the beginning of 1999, in the television programme Jour du Seigneur on France 2, Martin Féron described Bangladesh as follows, “History and nature have shaped the limits of this country of South Asia that is surrounded by India and bathed by the waters of the Gulf of Bengal. The vast majority of Bangladeshis live by working the land but the agricultural methods used are very ancient and only 20% of agricultural land is irrigated. The crops are regularly subject to natural disasters and, in particular, the distribution of the soil does not encourage the development of agriculture. More than half of the land belongs to less than 10% of the population. Frequent flooding at least has the advantage of laying down silt, the only fertile element in the plots of land where the population essentially grows rice, their basic food staple.

Islam is the state religion. More than 95% of Bangladeshis are Muslims. Catholics represent 0.3% of the population.” Although Christians have been viewed as strangers for a long time, their significant involvement in the war of liberation in 1971 has contributed to correcting this perception. Moreover, today, all the Catholic and Anglican bishops are Bangladeshis.

It is in this context that Caritas Bangladesh intervenes, given that the theme of “the development of every man” cited by Pope Paul VI in Populorum Progressio in 1967 is in harmony with the Koran dear to Moktar Ahmad Chowdhury. With regard to emergency situations and the response to the devastation caused by cyclones and flooding, Caritas Bangladesh can intervene throughout the country, backed up by its initial experience.

At the time of the War of Independence, many refugees left for India. When they returned, they had to be helped, and in this instance, thousands of tool sets were distributed to them to help them set up their homes again; this was Monsignor Rodhain’s idea².

When there is an emergency situation, Caritas Bangladesh plays a significant role in saving what is the most essential element, human lives. It understands fully the local realities, the religious phenomena and the customs. It is thus able to anticipate and prepare emergency plans, organise distribution of food and medicine, as well as developing projects to build permanent housing or anti-cyclone shelters.

In 1993, we visited a series of anti-cyclone shelters on the shores of the Gulf of Bengal at Charandwip, Moghadia, and Bhuyaman. Severe winds of 250 km/hour and a wave of 6-7 metres high brutally invaded the flat lands in 1991; there were 11 million disaster victims. Caritas initiated a programme to build 91 anti-cyclone shelters. There were two types of shelter: immediately next to the coast, there are enormous concrete bunkers on piles at two levels. In normal times, they are used as schools, health care centres and community halls. When there is a cyclone, they can shelter 2,500 people. Twenty-three have been completed and 45 are in the process of being built. Their cost per unit varies from 45,000 to 75,000 euro. Inland, at one to four kilometres from the coast, there are schools built of brick on three levels, reinforced so that the waters, having lost their violent force, can flow away easily through the ground floor. They can shelter 2,000 people. Nineteen have been completed and 23 are underway. The cost is 30,000 euro.

The programme is directed by a specialist national cell with regional relay offices. The staff is comprised of a total of 61 people, 41 of whom are engineers. There is an engineer present at each site at all times, he may also inspect the two closest sites. Everything is based on invitations to bid, a rigorous control and a professional attitude that brooks no concessions. A purchasing committee submits regular accounts to the management and to the board of directors. Here too, the local groups are involved. For every site, a gift of land must be made which is ratified by the government, as well as drawing up a prior contract with the school committee that manages the building and organises emergency activities, as well as maintaining stocks of food and water. The committee is also responsible for sounding the alarm by relaying the government instructions by radio and by going door-to-door in the streets. In fact, it is the school director who is the agent supported by the committee.

In 1989, the French embassy had three shelters built. The morale was not very good since, as usual, foreigners are not the best placed to analyse invitations to bid and follow up the work. Possibly, mixed teams would be best, but not in Bangladesh where Caritas is perfectly competent.

Cyclone Sidr raged against the south-west coast of the country in November 2007. There were “only” 3,000 deaths despite winds of 240 km/hour. Although more violent, it was 45 times less lethal than the 1991 cyclone and 100 times less than in 1972. In May 2009, cyclone Alia killed 90 people whereas it destroyed 175,000 homes and l,460 schools, leading to 3,900,000 victims.

The Bangladeshis have now got certain of the cyclones’ effects under control. Experts estimated in 1991 that 5,000 shelters would be needed. The government and the NGOs built 2,670 by mid-2009. To date, the estimate of needs has increased to 6,000 because of the increase in the population. Following Cyclone Sidr, Caritas had 18 new shelters built and repaired 76. The plans have progressed somewhat following a dialogue with the population: covering separate toilets for men and women, access ramps for the disabled, sick and the elderly, the possibility of future construction of a third floor, and resistance to winds of 260 km/hour.

Since 2009, Caritas Bangladesh has been relying on 19,000 local groups, comprising 382,000 members in 48 of the 464 districts of the country. These groups are developing thanks to the development of awareness and the leadership work led by the activity leaders living among the people in their villages. Some 70% of these groups are comprised of women only. Here, people are wary of mixed groups because the men would use them as an additional tool for exploiting women.

Many training opportunities have emerged from this structure, teaching the people to read and write, training group leaders, technical training for agriculture, fish farming, reforestation and numerous training programmes for women. Using this as a base and with the savings they have built up, together with additional loans from Caritas, the members of the groups – mostly landless peasants – can launch production activities, small animal breeding projects, market gardening, local crafts, transport, and the promotion of their communities, such as schools for children not attending schools in the official education system. Caritas considers that a group can become autonomous after some ten years of operation. This eventually gives rise to federations of groups based on a democratic system of operation.

It is a three-hour journey by road from Chittagong to attend the annual meeting of the Federation of Women’s Groups, where some 110 people are participating. After a Muslim prayer, a Hindu prayer and the national anthem, the Secretary, a single, 24 year-old Muslim lady opened the meeting. The groups set up by Caritas were there to defend women’s rights. They work very hard even though their work is not recognised. “Human development is as important as economic development, but it must evolve gradually towards a peaceful society, just like a growing child who is educated progressively.”

Even though they are in the minority, the men exist too. The President of the Federation of mixed Men and Women’s Groups, a farmer who is also an assistant teacher, addressed the meeting and explained how the groups started up ten years ago through meetings and the savings process. There are 46 mixed groups of men and women in the region. Nine reservoirs have been excavated for fish farming, and work has been done to improve the roads and tracks.

A short time afterwards, a thrilling and moving meeting was held by our team and the members of four groups. In Moktar Ahmad Chowdhury’s vast and ancient agricultural building, made of carved wood, the first floor is used as a training centre and an activities centre. The large room is dark, hot and humid. It is the monsoon season. To our right, there are three groups of about ten men. Further away on the left, at about 10 metres, as close to the wall as possible is an attractive array of coloured materials, indicating the presence of five or six women huddled close together. One of the men’s groups is made up of landless peasants, here they work where they are but for four months of the year, they rent out their labour within a radius of 40 km or they go to cut wood on the hillsides in order to sell it in town. Some members have managed to obtain micro-credits guaranteed by the group in order to purchase rickshaws, taxi-bicycles for two or three people. Four belong to the group and ten to the members. Another group of porters in a market have organised themselves as a defence cooperative. They are going to buy a second-hand lorry and there was a lively discussion with the Caritas leader who was seeking clarification regarding the status of the future driver. The last group of men, landless peasants, had started with two small fish farming projects. Disease had decimated the production the previous year, but they are going to start again. They were also unfortunate with the eight cows they had purchased with their savings and the additional loan from Caritas. One cow died recently. The discussion with the Caritas leader was firm. Could this be considered a case of force majeure that would allow for renegotiation of the dates of repayment of the loan? A real lesson in applied economics! The decision was handed down in eight days: it was favourable and the group was allowed a one-year extension of the loan.

The last discussion was held with a women’s group who are also landless peasants. Their group was formed four years ago and their first project was to purchase a cow, the second project was the acquisition of several goats. They recently also purchased eight cows with a two-year loan from Caritas. The herd is taken by members of the group in turn to graze the grass alongside the roads. The annual interest rate is 12%, but Caritas has reduced it to 6% when the repayments are made on the due dates agreed. All of the women emphasised the difficulties that they have had in imposing the very existence of the group on their husbands. The training they have been given has opened their minds to new realities: hygiene, how to care for children, domestic economics, and the start-up of a small country school with other groups.

I was greatly surprised to learn in 1993 that at that time, Secours Catholique wanted to integrate into its practises in metropolitan France a culture and method of evaluation, and it was in Bangladesh that we discovered everything involved. In fact, in each of the seven regions, there is an evaluation committee that works alongside the development projects and actions. In general, an evaluation team is made up of three people, a member of the project under evaluation, a representative from Caritas, either from another region or from the headquarters, and an outside expert with expertise in the project area. Several types of project evaluation coexist: self-evaluation by members of the project, external evaluation by members of Caritas and, the most frequent, external evaluation grouping together outside experts and members of Caritas. The methodology is very precise, a mix of strictness and logic inherited from the former British colonizer, and Bangladeshi tenacity and courage. The evaluation has several components: verification of the organisation and procedures; verification of project objectives, realisation of forecasts using detailed indicators; budget control; training and motivation of salaried staff, managers and beneficiaries in the groups ... and of the actual evaluators; stimulation of the action and repositioning by recommendations negotiated by the evaluation team, the project managers and the regional office, indeed, in certain cases, the national headquarters. What is extraordinary is that every project, every national department, and every regional office is evaluated every three years. Furthermore, Caritas in its entirety is also evaluated, as are its action strategies. The most extraordinary of all is that this work actually serves a purpose! The implementation of recommendations is verified regularly. The evaluations are not filed away on a shelf somewhere quietly collecting dust. Here, there are actual results and tenacity, and what has been recommended actually gets done!

In Rajshahi, I participated in a preparatory meeting for the evaluation of an integrated human development programme being run in four districts over the last two years. Its objectives are the socio-economic development of the landless poor who are marginalised in a context where three characteristics are very specific: the population is tribal, the landless are very numerous, and the land is not very fertile. Previously, there was a legal aid project to assist the tribes in recuperating their land, they had been chased from their land by Muslims coming from outside. Violent and illegal acts of recuperation had started some 15 years ago. The government had brought this to an end brutally after ten years. The specific programme for this region of the interior, led by a staff of twenty-five, concerns forty-six villages. Some 13,000 people have followed training courses and, to date, 7,500 belong to groups. There are three parts to the programme, education, with training of groups leading to socio-cultural development, launching of productive, profitable projects, and the recuperation of land.

The meeting was held in a large classroom, men and women sitting on separate sides of the room. The meeting brought together members of Caritas, 16 local staff responsible for promoting the creation and leadership of the groups, including three men, an accountant, a secretary, project manager, regional director, the two regional managers responsible for education and social issues, led by the three members of the future project evaluation team. It was decided to carry out a somewhat simplified evaluation after two years, taking specific local difficulties into consideration. A point was raised on the components of the programme with particular attention being paid to the training courses. The life of a Caritas Bangladesh group is based on shared responsibilities: in a women’s group, there must be a president who knows how to motivate, a treasurer and an assistant treasurer who know how to count, a secretary and an assistant secretary who know how to read and write ... everything starts with literacy. Then an impressive list was drawn up of all the more specialised training courses offered: leadership and management of the group, cultural activities, the traditional method of delivering babies, prevention of diseases, family planning, poultry vaccination, care for cattle, tree nurseries, reforestation, management of a profitable economic activity, land law, etc. Comparisons were made with the forecasts. Then there was the major topic of the indicators that took at least two hours. Objective elements are needed to gauge what happens in the groups. Some indicators had been inserted into the scenario at the beginning. The meeting dealt with patiently refining them in all their details, in the light of the practice well known to the leaders. Finally, agreement was reached on a list of 31 points that would be analysed group by group for future evaluations. Some of them are not surprising: 40% of the members must know how to read and write, but there was a long discussion about the figure of 40%. Is it enough? Is it too much? Furthermore, the leader will be judged and evaluated based on the results of the group, which encourages the evaluation team to be vigilant in the discussion. Some 10% of the groups will handle their accounts themselves, because each group is a savings centre. An increase in religious practice. A decrease in the death rate of poultry, an increase in the use of drinking water, a decrease in alcoholism, repayment rates for the micro-credits, an increase in the participation in social activities, marriages and funeral ceremonies, construction and repairs of roads and tracks, and the construction of houses are all at the very heart of the evaluation criteria. Others did surprise me because I did not imagine these effects: an increase in the age of marriage among young girls, a decrease in the number of births, an increase in the harmony between the Hindu and the Muslim tribes; but how can this be measured? It was decided that this should be qualitative. A decrease in the dependence on usurers, a decrease in defecation outdoors, and a decrease in superstitious beliefs.

At Mundumala, a group of 19 women waited for the evaluation team in the pretty ochre house of a family of landless peasants. Everything started with the welcome greeting, a verse from the Koran, sung by a young black woman standing in the middle of the small courtyard, in front of the others who were sheltered beneath the shade of a canopy. Only the Caritas leader was veiled. Moreover, we were told that she was only the only woman who wore the veil in the entire region! Most of the women present were young, some of them accompanied by young children. They were wearing saris, which they wore gracefully, and several bracelets, more often than not made of coloured plastic. They were very neat and tidy, and poor. All of them were very attentive, concentrated, serious and cheerful. The discussions revealed a people policed by thousands of years of cultural and spiritual traditions. Originally, when the group was founded, there were 25 women, but two young women got married and three women stopped participating. There was a lot of talk about the difficulties created by the men: divorce, sometimes polygamy, and jealousy of the group. In the village, the creation of the group has generated tensions. The non-participants became rather annoyed and said that people wanted to convert the Muslims to Hinduism! The group meets every week. At the beginning, the needs and problems made up the agenda which has since evolved to feature activities, savings, loans, and training: literacy, care for animals and vaccinations, weaving, market gardening, crafts and even a training course for midwifery. Five loans were granted for activities comprising weaving, rice cultivation, husking of rice, and small trade in vegetables. However, the community social activities have not yet started. The President commented on this and thought that the leader “does not provide the concept of development”. This will be mentioned in the report. It was noted that the well is 500 meters from the district and that it is only used for drinking water. For the remainder, the people take water from a pond that is nearer. Only six women were able to benefit from the installation of latrines, by paying a significant contribution. This was a criticism of Caritas which does not provide enough of them. One of the evaluators very discreetly organised a small reading, writing and arithmetic test. Four women can write a bit, and some of them have an elementary knowledge of arithmetic. Another woman who works with the treasurer and the secretary and checks the registers, explained to the group how to save.

During the lunch given at a nearby religious community, I was seated between two nuns and the leader of Caritas, between three veils ... an interreligious dialogue! When, several years later, Martin Féron interviewed the President of a women’s group and asked her what had changed in village life and in the lives of the women, Kolpona Rani replied looking directly at the camera, almost with pride, “Before, we lived in wretched huts, today, we have houses. Our situation has improved. Before, when I saw a foreigner, I ran to hide in the fields, now, I stand up straight and face you. I hold my head up high and speak to you with courage.” That said everything! Women are discovering their rights; they speak out in public and express themselves more and more freely. Whether they are Muslim or Hindu, like this group, they are assuming their role and becoming players in a society dominated by men where they used to be confined to the role of silent spectators.

Yet there are women who have the dominant rights in Bangladesh, such as the women of the matriarchal Garos tribe who live on the hills of the East. There, the mother is the owner of everything. On her death, it is her youngest daughter who inherits, or the daughter designated by her. The wife acquires the assets of her husband. When the wife dies, the husband has no rights, not even the right to remain in the family home, but this is rarely applied. The daughters are the apple of their mother’s eye; the boys less so since they will leave the family home when they marry. Under these conditions, a poor girl runs the risk of not finding a husband. The Salesian Sisters of Dhaka and Mymensingh have therefore created homes where young girls from the Garos tribe can learn sewing and embroidery and consequently are able to earn money from the sale of their work. In general, after two years, they can return home and buy themselves a good husband! A good number of the Garos tribe are Christians.

The rice harvest is over. The roads and tracks are invaded with carts drawn by cows and buffalos, overloaded with bags or straw. There are herds of cattle, some goats, a few rare pigs, sheep and horses everywhere contributing to slowing down the traffic. The villages are quite a distance from one another, while the road runs alongside a river that forms the frontier with India. A government programme has equipped the region with numerous manually-operated wells. The population appears to be in good health. Going through the villages, one sees several craftsmen’s colourful stalls and shops giving the impression of constant activity. After a lively village, there is an absolutely flat road of 15 km that crosses the government land where the landless are squatting. There are plots of land with no status, resulting from the displacement of waterways through flooding.

Education is the key word in the action of Caritas Bangladesh, concerning the three target populations: the women, the tribes and the landless. Here, the landless are considered to be people who have a very small plot of land or no land at all.

According to Ruma Rebecca Rodrigues, responsible for school projects at Caritas Bangladesh, “The principle characteristic of our programme is the community participation everywhere, in teacher remuneration, supervision of school activities, and in the construction of schools. The communities are very closely associated with the schools. The teachers visit the families in their homes and hold discussions with them. These schools do not belong to Caritas, they are the communities’ schools.”

The children know only their dialect and their parents are often illiterate, consequently they have no possibility of integrating in the government schools. The Caritas programme enables them to acquire basic reading and writing skills in three years, and this has a double advantage: through the children’s education, the parents also acquire some essential basic knowledge of hygiene and economics. The teachers also teach the children how to save. Just as with the loans, every project and every school involves the entire community ... A committee ensures that the school is run properly, creates an economic activity such as the plantation of fruit trees, to ensure that the establishment has revenues. Durbin Kiskou, president of the school committee of KoziPara in the North, declared to Martin Féron, “Yes, life has changed. The school plays a very important role in the way of life in this village. For example, before, the women had no idea whatsoever about health, but now both the pupils and their parents are more aware of these issues. Before, all the village children ran around naked. Now, that has changed so much.”

Another illustration of this community methodology: the tribes in the Bandarban region benefit from an agro-forestry programme. These tribes are mainly Buddhist and the population is vulnerable, threatened by the mountain dwellers from the South-East, while Bangladesh is a country of deltas and of water. Traditionally, they practise the slash-and-burn cultivation technique that does not allow harvesting for more than ten consecutive years on the same plot of land. When this is land is exhausted, they abandon it and move on to an area at a distance of some 10 km.

The purpose of the programme is therefore to enable them to become settled in one area by changing their cultivation method. The population becomes the owners of the land that is ceded to them by the government. They plant trees for wood for construction and also fruit trees. They follow courses to learn to read and write, on how to save all together to finance their projects and they take an active role in their development. Caritas has been successful in teaching parents in these hillside tribes to be aware that their children’s future depends above all on training that will add value to their lives. Every year, 30 boys leave their communities to follow one year of study in a technical school in town. Some 70% of the boys find work after the training period. The product of their work, sold abroad, is used in part to fund the school. A mobile school has also been opened for the girls.

Bangladesh has won acclaim on several counts. The pharmaceutical industry and several Bangladeshi personalities have become well known worldwide. This country has managed to lead a policy of independence against the large pharmaceutical multinational companies³. The pharmaceutical industry was started in Bangladesh at the beginning of the 1980s and it has grown fast with an average growth rate of 10% per year. It now constitutes the second sector of the country’s economy with more than 200 pharmaceutical companies. It currently covers 97% of local needs, compared with only 20% at the beginning of the 1980s. The country only imports very high-tech vaccines and drugs with innovative formulations. Would the Bangladesh experience not serve as a positive lesson for the leaders of our planet? This makes one think too of Mohamed Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, the “bank of the poor”, which revolutionised the banking system some 30 years ago, with the development of the micro-credit, leading to imitators in developed countries from New York to Paris. When awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, the Norwegian Nobel committee considered that “a sustainable peace could not be obtained unless a major part of the population finds a way to emerge from poverty. ... Mr Yunus and the Grameen Bank have demonstrated that the most destitute members of society can work towards their own development”. We think too of Taslima Nasreen who through her courage was able to analyse at her own cost the subservience imposed on the women of Bangladesh. Her writings enjoyed an immediate success because no one before her had ever raised the problem of the religious oppression of women that was authorised, as well as the omnipresent sexual discrimination.

For my part, I would like to add to this gallery the name of Jeffrey Pereira, past director of Caritas Bangladesh, who made it radiant, intelligent, creative and real. He is also very modest. It is to him that I am indebted for several certainties and enlightened views regarding development and international relations. Jeffrey Pereira is among the people who introduced me to development activities. It is thanks to him that I realised that our lofty notions of promoting the poorest would really only work if we worked at it thoroughly, providing a sustained effort and without too many compromises. The social teachings of the Church, with the preferential option for the poor and the desire to encourage the development of “every man and everything in man”, is ambitious yet realistic. It is translated into real, human terms and ennobled by men such as Jeffrey Pereira. A primary school teacher by training, he created Caritas Bangladesh with an American visionary priest. He is a Bengali, straightforward, warm, with an incredibly demanding nature and a rare strength of character. Most of all, he is someone who is consistent, who knows how to develop strategies and how to implement them; someone who is practical, who is knowledgeable about the culture of his people, and about the European and American mentalities; someone who loves people and who knows how to stay the course. When answering questions posed by the Westerner that I am, he replies without beating about the bush, “The family planning method is not the issue. What counts is what the child costs the family, and that he goes to school. Thus, the family will have fewer children. They will be better educated and therefore will be in a position to earn more money; these few children will be enough to provide a well provisioned “retirement fund”, more effective than what would be provided by ten or so illiterate and poverty-stricken children. Thus, the contraceptive method is no longer the problem. The people are intelligent, 30% of the population already use contraceptives.”

Jeffrey Pereira is also a true manager, “The Caritas personnel base themselves on two values, commitment and professionalism. Both are needed. Caritas staff are more competent than the clergy in matters of emergencies, development, human rights, training and evaluation. The clergy should guide them and accompany them but not manage them, nor become involved in the programmes.” Continuing with the foundation of his priority actions he said, “The Church did not want Caritas to get involved in curative medicine, standard formal education and the construction of buildings for churches, schools, mosques or temples. The Church has now evolved somewhat and wants Caritas to handle educational projects for marginalised populations, care for lepers who are so neglected, and support for health care centres. And Caritas is involved in the rural areas that the foreign NGOs cannot and do not know how to handle.”

A sociologist in his soul, he has analysed the undercurrents of Bangladeshi society and its obstacles, in order to sublimate them, surpass them and translate them, in a positive resistance, into programmes for human development, “In the former culture founded on the silence of a people dominated by invaders and colonisers, it was your fathers and your mothers who thought for you. The Hindu castes and the local lords aided this by organising the silence. Our programmes for leadership, group training, education, cutting the umbilical cord, develop resistance and make people aware. Once the women are involved in a group and are committed to a development process, there is no going back and no father or husband can oppose this emancipation.”

Whatever the type of activity, every action of Caritas Bangladesh is based on the principle of the adherence and active participation of the beneficiaries. According to Jeffrey Pereira, in 1999, Caritas had only one single programme in the form of 43 different projects. They were complementary and supportive of each other. Thus, this led to the vision, the mission and the objective of Caritas which are, in accordance with the very terms of Populorum Progressio, to help people evolve from a low condition of life to a more human level with a better life style, to bring them joy, happiness, strength and development. “We firmly believe that people are poor because they have lost the power of thought, the power of words and the power to organise themselves. When people become capable of thinking for themselves, they become capable of expressing their feelings and their thoughts freely, when they can organise themselves into groups who share the same ideas, they will be able to achieve very rapid development. We are saying: let us develop people’s potential. And then when they do possess something, they will be capable of keeping it, using it and of improving their way of life. However, in a country that is mostly Muslim, what does it mean for a Catholic organisation “to act without distinction of race or religion”? Some people still find it difficult to understand why the West gives so much aid simply because they are asked, and some people even think that it is not natural. In the past, during centuries and centuries, the Hindus were only concerned with Hindus, the Buddhists were only concerned with Buddhists, and the Christian communities remained in small ghettos around the church and were only concerned with themselves. The Muslims in their district were capable of looking after themselves.⁴

For several decades now, ideas have been circulating freely. All men have become very close to one another. Information is now shared in several seconds. Whenever something happens somewhere in the world, it is known everywhere immediately. And people, all people of all races and all religions are fundamentally good. Human nature is good. Everyone wants to help. Whatever the religion, all the teachings are the same, “You cannot serve God who you do not see if you do not serve your neighbour who you do see, and who is in distress.” You only meet God when you are concerned by your fellow man. Islam states this very strongly, “Before you eat, look and see whether your neighbour has food.” Christians say the same thing, observed Jeffrey Pereira.

In 2009, with 4,000 staff members, 40% Christians, and the remainder Muslims and Hindus, 64 projects and 1,660,000 beneficiaries, Caritas Bangladesh always revises its strategies regularly. It operates around the implementation of four priorities: firstly the development of human resources through education, training and the improvement of individual capacities, then the promotion of social justice and human rights by strengthening the potential of the poor, women and ethnic minorities, then healthcare and the integration of access to drinking water, action regarding AIDS, family planning, and finally sustainable ecology through the well thought-out use of resources and training for emergency operations.

In addition to its annual budget of 25 million euro, there are outstanding debts of 13 million euro in loans to 302,000 people. These are micro-credits of an average of 43 euro. Yet their effectiveness is well known; the rate of reimbursement is 96%. An audit and budget committee made up of five people, including one administrator, supervises the team of 12 internal auditors and collaborates with three external auditors. Caritas remains loyal to its quality programmes: following the 2007 cyclone, it built 34 new shelters and is leading a national process of revision of their standards. It provides training for emergency conditions for its personnel, civil servants and members of NGOs. It participates in national consultations, e.g. regarding education. It is setting up new agricultural programmes to respond to climate change by using varieties of rice that can grow in salty lands, by creating floating vegetable gardens like those in several regions of the world or by developing methods for collecting rainwater for fish farming. Then, as being practical is a necessity, it adds ducks to the poultry breeding units, since ducks can float on the water, whatever happens. Finally, there is an ‘Environmental School’ providing training in these new techniques.

At the end of my stay in 1999, Jeffrey Pereira insisted on accompanying me to the airport even though it was late at night. In the car, he confirmed to me that his term of office would soon come to an end. Everybody knew it. He seemed concerned about what would happen in the future. There was a debate within the Episcopal Conference: given the importance of Caritas in Bangladesh, with regard to the volume of its activities as well as its internal and external impact and influence, is it reasonable to continue to entrust the leadership to a layman? A papal nuncio⁵ previously in post at Dacca wounded him to the quick by criticising Caritas for collaborating with non-Christians! The local bishops, even though they were involved in social pastoral work, began to have their doubts, accompanied by several people in the Vatican. It was necessary for the President and the Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis to intervene to calm things down and restate the essential. In this society where Christians are the ultra-minority and the fundamentalisms at work, Caritas must be vigilant regarding its strategies. Jeffrey Pereira is sad to observe on many occasions that despite all the denials of the principle, in reality, laymen are considered inferior beings by certain parties in the Church. The good news arrived several weeks later. The Administrative and Financial Director of Caritas, Bitu Da Costa, will be appointed as the new Secretary General. I know him well. Although he is less of a visionary than his friend and not quite as much of a figurehead, he will ensure the continuity of the strategy to perfection. He will be replaced several years later by Benedict D’Rozario who, at the time of my first trip to the country in 1989, was an excellent guide in matters of development, the best of all my mentors in the world – after Jeffrey Pereira, of course!

English translation: Valérie Perales