Change Maker: Villagers unite to create a 'dream village'

Unity is strength. The self-motivated young people of Bharra union's ward number six in Tangail's Nagarpur upazila, a community of 6,500 people, are proving the old adage true. They are striving to overcome longstanding social and infrastructure problems to create a modern “dream village.”

About a year ago when police assistant sub-inspector Saidur Rahman Sumon returned home to the ward's Pachasaratia village for a visit, he faced the usual rough, dirt roads. He brought his laptop but could not open it. There is no electricity. He saw youths involved in vices such as stalking, gambling and drug addiction. “Law enforcers hardly reach here,” he says, “due to the road conditions.”

It upset Saidur to see his village in such a state. One day he shared his thoughts with a friend, Ashadur Rahman Sweet, an employee of a private firm. “I felt I should do something,” Saidur recalls. “My friend encouraged me. We found two others, multinational employee Zakir Hossain Munna and university student Robiul Islam, keen to help.”

They couldn't imagine where such simple conversations would lead.

“We started talking to local youths,” Saidur explains. “We held village meetings and discovered unanimous support. We decided to create a group which we called 'Our Village,' but later we settled on 'Dream Village' as the name, for that is what we aim to become.”

By last August around 200 local youths had pledged support.

“We made lists of drug addicts, gamblers and stalkers,” recalls Saidur, now president of the group's management committee. “We approached them, one by one, to motivate change. We met village elders. We visited schools to generate awareness of problems among teachers and students. We started dialogue with our union chairman and council, seeking help.”

“We haven't been able to remove all the social ills thus far,” Saidur continues, “but we hope to succeed very soon.”

“The Dream Village team has set a great example,” acknowledges local headmaster Mohammad Farhad Hossain. “In just six months they established discipline. You can't see students playing carom in school hours anymore or wasting evenings in the bazaar. Nobody takes drugs openly now. Truly, our dream village is close at hand.”

The group visited the upazila-level administration to request technical assistance for farmers and fishers. They discussed suitable entrepreneurial ideas. They talked about health care.

To encourage education, Dream Village gave awards to meritorious students and when winter arrived they distributed warm clothes to the vulnerable. They sought to help orphan girls become established, at times by finding a suitable groom. And local patients can now avail some financial support from the group. Dream Village has also worked on the state of the roads.

“We have earth-laden trolley-vehicles belonging to influential outsiders plying our dirt roads,” says freedom fighter Abdus Samad Shikder from Pachasaratia. “They leave the roads in almost unusable condition.” It's a particular hazard for patients trying to reach hospital.

“Dream Village repaired a one-kilometre stretch of the flood-damaged Chowbaria – Salpokutia road,” notes Monirul Islam, an assistant high school teacher.

That initiative came to the attention of the Japanese foreign aid agency JICA, which provided Tk 2.5 lakhs for extra roadwork and a further Tk 1 lakh to develop the area's Eidgah prayer field.

And last November when the state minister for post and telecommunication Tarana Halim, also a local, tried to visit the area but was forced back due to road conditions, Dream Village secured her assurance that she would indeed visit the area very soon, after the construction of a concrete roadway.

Then there is the electricity problem. “We are knocking on the doors of upazila administrators and public representatives hoping for electricity,” says Sweet, now the general secretary of the group's committee. “Electricity is the light of development. It will facilitate entrepreneurship.”

“Although our members have modest incomes,” reflects Saidur, “we have a savings fund for income-generating projects. We plan vegetable gardens and orchards in every household yard and on school land. We will plant trees for beautification and have lampposts in front of every home. We have 400 freedom fighters in the union too, and as far as I know they've never had a reception to express our gratitude. We will give them one.”

Saidur notes with regret that the area is yet to produce its first government officer. “Our vision is a community of honest human beings,” he says. “People will live poverty-free, without social vice. Our youths will be well-educated and contribute.” With the enthusiasm of Dream Village at work, it's hard to imagine they won't succeed. The future is indeed, in their hands.