Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Chairman of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) and Coordinator of Bangladesh Climate Change Negotiating Team, visited YPSA’s rehabilitation program for climate displaced people at Sayedpur union, Sitakund on March 20, 2017.
Dr. Kholiquzzaman talked to the rehabilitated family members there and he said, against the idea of Guccha grams (clustered villages) and Ashrayan programme for landless and homeless families, small scale rehabilitation within the community is an innovation and it should be model for relocating climate induced displaced people throughout the country.
He suggested integrating these families into the existing development program of YPSA as well as other GO-NGO services. During his visits YPSA ensured that they will be monitored regularly including their growth and disseminated the findings as best practices in the future for replicating all over the country.
It is worth to mention here that YPSA with the support of Switzerland based donor Displacement Solutions, has been working for the rights of climate displaced people since 2012 under the project of “Bangladesh Housing, Land and Property (HLP) Rights of Climate Displaced People”. To establish a sustainable relocation model, several displaced families from Sandwip Island to Sitakund are being rehabilitated under this project.
Dr. Md. Jashim Uddin, Deputy Managing Director, PKSF; Tazul Islam Nizami, Union Parishad Chairman, Sayedpur; Md. Arifur Rahman, Chief Executive of YPSA; Palash Kumar Chowdhury, Director (finance), YPSA and Mohammad Shahjahan, Deputy Director, YPSA were present during his visit.