PROJECT IMPACT

CASE STUDY

BANGLADESH
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INTRO

Bangladesh, one of the four countries of

iMove project, officially the People's
Republic of Bangladesh is a country in
South Asia, it shares land borders with India
and Myanmar. Current GDP per capita of
Bangladesh is 1,358.78 USD (2016).

3 volunteers, Jui, Joe & Shadman joined the

iMove team from Bangladesh. 

“I am Steffi Jui Mitra from South-East Part

of Bangladesh which is full of Natural
beauty of Nature. I completed my Masters in
Food & Nutrition. I was a national ICS
volunteer of VSO Bangladesh from May-July
2016. It was my first volunteering
experience and was a great learning too. It
was after my graduation that helped me a
lot to develop myself in that time. And now
I am in iMove pilot project in Cambodia
after my post-graduation. I get another
chance to brush myself and develop myself
for my up-coming life.”

“Hey, I am Joe, full name Joseph Chakma,

was born in a very beautiful hilly place
called Khagrachari in Bangaldesh. Currently
I am 26 years old. By now I have been
throughout 6 different educational institute
which made me very flexible in all kind of
situation. Volunteering with ICS was a great
call I made for myself, which improved so
many things in me. After ICS I started to
volunteer more along with wandering
around the world.

No doubt it is another very exciting and

non-forgettable memory of my life. The
presence of the team members from
countries like Nepal, India, Cambodia is
making the work more effective, easy and
fun.”
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“Being passionate over volunteering, dreaming

about changing the world with positivity and
getting opportunity of learning new things, I,
Shadman Sakib Chayan from Chittagong,
Bangladesh, decided to fly to Cambodia, a
totally unknown territory for me, and  start
volunteering with VSO for the 3rd time; now
with a pilot project named iMove (Initiative for
Mobility of Volunteering for empowering Change
in Asia),  which is based on livelihood
development in the rural communities of
Cambodia.

Moreover, getting learned about the new

addition of iMove project engaging the
experienced ICS volunteers from four different
countries, has added some extra boost in my
mind as I cannot expect getting such amenities
in a regular basis (may be once in a life time).
Finally, the journey of iMove project had started
with new thrill & enthusiasm, and challenging
ourselves to be better for making positive
change in the rural community of Cambodia.
Cambodia! Here I come. Let's make the CHANGE”

GOING THROUGH
THE PROJECT
Although, initially, we were not provided clear
idea about the team’s aim or objectives; whether
we will be working on Education or Livelihood.
But later on, as soon as we were in the
community, and after getting the SEGA (Social
Exclusion and Gender Analysis) training, we had
the clear picture not only about the aim of the
project, but also the roles & responsibilities of
the team.

During the SEGA training, we had been informed

that the whole iMove project would be divided
into four different stages; Analysis, Design,
Implementation and finally Reflection where our
first iMove cycle has been focusing on only
Analysis part as this one is one of the most vital
part of the project. Later on,  we had decided
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our four objectives in this Analysis part.

These were followed by:

1. Identifying the most marginalized youths in

the communities.

2. Together we want to understand the

challenges / barriers.

3. Building up trustful relationship with the

community.

4. To give informed recommendation for the

next iMove implementation. 

As per our team's concern, in spite of having

very shorter period of time, we have already
achieved all of the objectives that we had
targeted earlier of the project. Since our team’s
work is on analysis part, being learnt about it
we have divided our team in three different sub
teams gradually General Community Youths
Team, Dropout School Youths Team and
Entrepreneurs Youths Team with a view to
identifying the potential marginalized youths.

In the meantime, aiming to understand the CAB

(Challenges, Barriers and aspiration) of the
marginalized youths, having the clear image of
this community (Kantout and Chrouva Village)
and building up the trustful relationship with
them, we, the iMove volunteers from four
different nationalities conducted several
interviews with our local stakeholders (village
chief, community chief, commune police chief)
as well as numerous local and international
NGOs (UNICEF, Swiss Contact, Cambodian
Community Development and so on).

After successful interviews with the

stakeholders and the NGO’s working in these
two villages the whole team was divided into 3
sub-teams in Community Youth, Drop-out
Students, Entrepreneurs. Each sub team
conducted survey within the two villages
(Kantout and Chrouva) with a view to learning
precise information about different types of
marginalized groups in the community and their
present condition for the next 2 weeks. 
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Right after completing the survey,

each sub-team submitted the
report based on what the debrief
report has been made. 

Before the end of our placement,

the team decided to conduct two
CAD on “Waste Management” &
“First Aid”. The whole team was
divided into two based on the
interest of the volunteers. Both
programs were huge success and
well appreciated by the
participants. 

Bangladesh is around the same size

DIFFERENCES
as Cambodia. Cambodia is
approximately 181,035 sq km, while
Bangladesh is approximately
BETWEEN
148,460 sq km. Meanwhile, the
population of Cambodia is ~16
BANGLADESH &
million people (140 million more
people live in Bangladesh). The
currency of Bangladesh is called
CAMBODIA
Bangladeshi Taka and the currency
of Cambodia is called Khmer Riel.
But US dollar is mostly used for
large transactions.

While having a meal in restaurant or

fast food centers in Cambodia, one
need to pay 19.9% more comparing
to Bangladesh. Where grocery price
is significantly 85.2% high than
Bangladesh in Cambodia. When it
comes to transport the cost is 14.5%
higher than Bangladesh. But for
childcare related to education
people in Cambodia need to pay
72.1% less than Bangladesh. 

Cambodian people has to pay 33.3%

less tax than Bangladesh. 

In Bangladesh, citizens pay a top marginal
tax rate (the highest tax rate you can pay)
of 30%. In Cambodia, the top marginal tax
rate is 20%. Bangladesh consumes around
294 kWh per capita of electricity per year.
As Cambodia is less populated country, that
number is 256 kWh per capita.
On the other hand, the cuisine and spices
are really different in both countries. Their
customs, traditions, religion everything is
very different than Bangladesh. Having so
many differences between our countries
were never a problem while working
alongside with the Khmer and other
volunteers. We really enjoyed our stay and
the hospitality of Cambodian people.
Certainly, we can say we will be back to our
country with a lot of learning and sweet
memories.  • Temperature was another challenge for
CHALLENGES
FACED SO FAR
For all of us Cambodia is a pack of sweet
memories. While working in the community
we really loved their hospitality. But some
time it was a bit problematic to cope in a
completely new environment with new
people with different languages. Here are
the few challenges we faced during the
placement.
• Language is the major challenge for all of
us. It was no possible for us to
communicate with the community people, if
we want to have any conversation we
needed the help of Khmer volunteers. This
challenge became problematic while we
went for survey in the community. But with
the help of the Khmer volunteers we
overcame it.
PAGE 5
For all of us Cambodia is a pack of sweet
memories. While working in the community
we really loved their hospitality. But some
time it was a bit problematic to cope in a
completely new environment with new
people with different languages. Here are
the few challenges we faced during the
placement.
• Language is the major challenge for all of
us. It was no possible for us to
communicate with the community people, if
we want to have any conversation we
needed the help of Khmer volunteers. This
challenge became problematic while we
went for survey in the community. But with
the help of the Khmer volunteers we
overcame it.
us, because the heat is little bit high
comparing to our country & sometime it
become difficult for us. But we have
matched up with it and later on we had fun
when we go out with our cycle which was
given by VSO Cambodia.
• At the beginning the food was really a big
issue for us. Because Bangladesh food
pattern is very different then Cambodia. But
as time passed by it became habituated.
• Time schedule was a little problem. As
Cambodian people are used to have their
dinner with in 6:30-7:00pm but we the
Bangladeshi people usually eat after
9:00pm at night. And they go for sleep with
in 9:00pm-10:00pm but we normally in our
country go for sleep after 11pm. It was
little bit difficult for us in the beginning
but later on it became ok with their time
table and was having good time now. 
"When you are enthusiastic about
what you do , you feel this positive
energy, it is simple" - Paulo Coelho
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On the other hand, the two CADs was huge

PROJECT success conducted on “Waste Management” and

“First Aid”. The whole team is expecting some
great output in future from those 2 CADs.”

IMPACTS
As a part of the pilot phase of iMove, our
task was to figure out the marginalized
people, their challenges and aspirations,
building relationship with the community
and provide recommendation for the
upcoming cycle.

In case of building relationship with the

community, the team did a fantastic job.
Even the language was a great barrier for
the international volunteers to talk with
community people, every volunteer both
national and international made huge effort
on this field. On the other hand, getting
information about the marginalized people,
some of the volunteers are not satisfied.
The 3 days SEGA training was quite
informative, but still at some point, the
volunteers felt it was not well constructed
and the information is not based on the
particular community we have worked. Post
document about the training was requested
by the volunteers it left few of the
volunteers very confused about the whole
procedure and had a direct impact in the
project. Cause after the training some of
the volunteers wanted to follow the process
discussed in the training, some wanted to
try different and some were stick to their
previous experience.

Another very important thing is that the

whole team was confused about the
marginalized and vulnerable people.
Through the interview conducted by the
sub-teams (Community youth, Dropout
students, Entrepreneurs), the challenges
and barriers of vulnerable people in the
community was figured out, on which the
upcoming cycle may work on.
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RECOMMENDATION 3. As iMove will be working with the

volunteers from 4 different countries, for the
difference of culture and religion there must
difference in food habit and other custom as
We believe iMove can make a great impact in
well. We recommend VSO to make an
the development of these 4 countries if
expectation form for the volunteers to know
properly handled & supervised. The previous
their food habit and other behavioural factors
ICS experience of the iMove volunteers took
and what they are expecting from the host
the working environment in a professional
family and make a talk with the host family if
level where everyone contributed successfully.
they agree with those expectation or not. A
There are some key recommendation from the
one-day training with the host families by VSO
Bangladeshi volunteers.
introducing all the probable situation that may
cause conflict is also recommended.i.
1. Make sure the objective is easily
understandable. For us using SEGA and
4. Be more flexible and open to volunteer’s
livelihood improvements was very complicated
request. We felt VSO Cambodia is not open
for the team. For example, while doing SEGA
enough to volunteers request. For example,
we found a girl who is from a good income
some of us wanted to go to Angor Watt, but
family but dropped out form school, because
from VSO officials it was denied. It certainly
of gender discrimination. In that case
harmed the motivation of the volunteers in
livelihood improvement doesn’t give the
many ways. As personal development is one of
opportunity to help her, as her family is
the key target of iMove, we feel it is very
already in good condition, on the other hand
essential not to keep them in single place but
she is marginalised. As stated before the
take them to some historical places which
words marginalise and vulnerable were also
enrich their knowledge regarding the particular
confusing for the volunteers.
country.

5. Keep in touch with the volunteers and create

2. Well-constructed training for the volunteers
more volunteering opportunities for the alumn
which will clearly indicate the project
objective and procedure. 
EACH PERSON
MUST LIVE
THEIR LIFE AS
A MODEL FOR
OTHERS
ROSA PARKS