ABAK project benefits 4,386 families in Khulna’s Rupsha upazila

At least 4,386 poor and extreme-poor families in the Rupsha upazila of Khulna are getting benefit from the government’s “Amar Bari, Amar Khamar (ABAK)” project, one of the 10 priority initiatives of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, sources said.

The government has undertaken the project to alleviate poverty and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through fund mobilisation and farming, they said.

Under the project, a total of 83 “Village Development Associations” (VDAs) have been formed in Rupsha upazila of Khulna district which provides financial benefit to 4,386 families, Snigdha Aktar, Co-ordinator of ‘ABAK’ project in the upazila said.

The beneficiaries deposited over TK 13.7 million so far and the government provided 11.5 million as bonus and 16.6 million as loans under the project, she said.

Snigdha said marginalised people under VDAs have become self-reliant and capable of running their businesses independently using money from the fund.

Around TK 2.96 crore has already been disbursed as micro credit among the members and currently the rate of loan recovery is 80 per cent, she added.

Under the project, each VDA member deposited Taka 200 per month and the government provides the equal amount in favour of each person as bonus, she said, adding all the money has been deposited to the bank account of VDA.

After getting fund from the respective VDA, people can run small farms like fishery, livestock, poultry and make nursery and vegetable garden, she continued.

Ronjita Das, a resident of the remote Kajdia village of the upazila, has been running a duck farm for the last two years by taking a loan of taka 15,000 from the VDAs association under the ABAK project.

“In this short span of time, I became self reliant and contributed a lot to my family,” he said, reports BSS.