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Throughout my life, I never ever thought I would have a decent day. Now, I don’t have to think about my next meal, my security and where I will sleep.  I have seen some awful things. What have I seen? I do not want to remember those days”, says Munia one of The Sreepur  Village mothers. Eight months ago, she was welcomed into the village with her five month old  baby girl. Let’s hear, from her, how she found a decent life at The Sreepur Village.

As this week is National Gardening Week, The Sreepur Village would like to highlight the training they offer so that over 200 mothers, in the future, can live self-sufficiently, confidently knowing that their children will not starve.

For the three meals a day that The Sreepur Village provides, a small piece of farm land in the village has been partitioned into different sections for growing vegetables, 60% of which is dedicated to feeding our mothers and children fresh vegetables and, sometimes, salad.

World Immunisation Week, 24^th-30^th April, is observed every year to raise awareness for greater action on immunisation around the world. Immunisation has been recognised as one of the world’s most successful and cost-effective health interventions, which is known to save millions of lives. In spite of that, there are over 19 million unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children in the world, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Immunisation can protect against 25 different infectious agents or diseases, from infancy to old age, including diphtheria, measles, mumps, pertussis, and tetanus while some of the diseases eradicated by vaccines include smallpox, rinderpest, polio and malaria.

Pohela Boishakh, the first day of Bengali New Year, was celebrated in The Sreepur Village with traditional festivities and enthusiasm. Every year during Pohela Boishakh, the country’s biggest cultural festival, people of all walks of life, especially children and teenagers, come out at daybreak wearing traditional dresses eager to celebrate their most cultural day. The festivals of Pohela Boishakh have become an integral part of Bengladesh since it began over six centuries ago. Mughal Emperor Akbar introduced the Bangla calendar in 1556, as part of the Georgian Calendar, in a bid to streamline the timing of land tax collection. However, true to their centuries-old tradition, people from all walks of life of the country welcome the Bengali New Year 1425, with new hopes and aspirations for a better and peaceful ye

Watch our video to see how The Sreepur Village prepares for Pohela Boishakh (Bengali New Year)

Earlier in 2017, The Sreepur Village began a ‘Candle Making’ training programme for the mothers, to help empower them as entrepreneurs. A small business idea, such as this, helps the mothers to support their families as they can make candles in their free time and earn an additional income, a driving force that never existed before.

The contribution of sport to education, human development, healthy lifestyles and a peaceful world is of utmost importance and here in The Sreepur Village, we commit ourselves to the development of our children through various sports and physical exercises.

In the Sreepur Village school, we provide a specialised sports instructor who teaches the children a variety of sports every day. Jesmin has a degree in Physical Education and has experience in children’s sports and physical exercise.

On Sunday, The Sreepur Village, celebrated the 48th Independence Day by participating in different programmes organised by the Sreepur Village School.

As a first phase of the programme, the children of the Sreepur Village School celebrated the free spirit of the Bangladeshi Independence day with great fervour and joy. In excited anticipation, they gathered in the school grounds for an assembly while the national flag was hoisted by Pat and Imran (our two directors) and the melody of the national anthem of Bangladesh played in the background.

As it is #NutritionMonth and #youcancareweek would you like to see what snacks The Sreepur Village provides the children during school times?

Living in a remote village in Bangladesh’s Sunamgaj District, Runu Bala struggled to feed her three children. Without land and living near to Tanguar Haor - a large wetland area in North-Eastern Bangladesh that gets flooded for five to six months of the year - it was hard for Runu to grow vegetables or other crops. Vegetables are an essential source of nutrition for a sound and healthy body, but in Bangladesh, two out of every three children born are underweight due to malnutrition.

In Bangladesh, many mothers, like Runu, don't have enough land to cultivate vegetables conventionally. Sack gardening does not require much space and a variety of vegetables can be grown according to need and taste. The bags are also easy to move, which is important for families living on 'char' lands (River Island) and riverbanks, who are often forced to move as their villages become flooded. The large majority of our mothers are from the Char area.

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2018, the mothers’ association of the Sreepur Village arranged a cultural programme and led a discussion which focussed on this year’s theme of #PressforProgress. It was an opportunity for the Sreepur mothers to celebrate womanhood in all its form and during the two-hour long discussion, the mothers primarily discussed the importance of self-reliance, training and development, they also thanked The Sreepur Village for supporting them and their children.

Today is International Women's Day and The Sreepur Village would like to share with you a story of hope and empowerment:

After the death of her husband, Khadija and her three children were evicted from their home by her husband’s elder brother. Abandoned and alone the only option for Khadija and her children was to move to Dhaka. 

It was whilst living in a park that Khadija’s children met an organisation that offered to refer them all to The Sreepur Village (Shishu Polli Plus), the only residential mother and child project in Bangladesh. Without The Sreepur Village Khadija would have had to place her children in institutional care and spend the rest of her life alone on the streets of Dhaka.