Activity Report on

Campaign around emerging issues of Bangladesh: Disaster Risk Reduction and Response

Implemented by

Dhaka Community Hospital Trust

In collaboration with NSET, Nepal and SEED, India

Supported by

ADRRN and AusAID

BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT Bangladesh with an area of 1,47,570 square kilometers and about 160 million people are living in this country and this country is situated at the North of the Bay of Bengal. For the geographical reason this country is affect by many kind of disaster like Cyclone, Tornado, Flood, Too Hot during the Summer, Suddenly Heavy Rain Fall, Building Collapse etc. Very often a huge number of damages (e.g. human life, assets and economy) are occurring for several kinds of disaster. At present more than 10000 large factories are exist in Bangladesh which are mostly faulty designed, weak structure, absence of health facilities. The employees are lack of knowledge on emergency primary health care, fire safety and disaster management like earthquake and building collapsed etc. In this scenario Bangladesh is not enough prepared to manage and overcome during and post disaster due to lack of advocacy, awareness, training and proper management. Dhaka Community Hospital (DCH) is implementing a project in collaboration with SEEDS and NSET on campaign around emerging issues in industrial areas of Bangladesh.

BOUNDARY PARTNERS The Boundary Partners (BP) will be BP – 1: Industrial Workers, Industry Owners BP – 2: Health Workers and Local Community BP – 3: Govt. Officials, Construction Consultant, NGOs, Private Organization

OUTCOME CHALLENGES Coordination, Implementation and Capacity Building on strategic policy advocacy on industrial health safety among all level of Garments Factory, who are involve and work in the factory. To reach the outcome challenges DCHT implemented the following activities.

Selection of Site and Beneficiaries (Identify the factory)

Dhaka Community Hospital Trust visited several factories in Dhaka City and Ashulia Industrial Areas on November 2014 to identify the factory for implementing the activities. The purpose of the visit was to have discussion with the factory management. After the discussion with factory management DCH selected the three factories for survey programme which are as follows.

A. Binni Garments Ltd. located at Kamlapur, Dhaka. About 500 workers are working in this factory. Most of them are female and less educated and do not know about disaster risk management.

B. BandBox Ltd. located at East Narashinghapur, Ashulia, Dhaka. About 290 workers are working in this factory. Most of them are less educated and do not know about disaster risk management.

Garments Factory 

C. Bitopi Group (Misami Garment Ltd.) located at Shawrapara, Dhaka. About 1400 workers are working in this factory. Most of them are female and less educated and do not have enough knowledge on disaster risk management.

Survey to the industries to find out the gaps on health and safety issue

Dhaka Community Hospital (DCH) conducted a baseline survey programme in three above mentioned factories for need assessment on “Campaign around emerging Issues of Bangladesh: Disaster Risk Reduction and Response”. The purpose of this survey programme is “To find out the gaps on health and safety issue in the industries of Bangladesh”. 300 participants (100 from each factory) participated in this survey programme. For this survey programme DCH developed a survey questionnaire and finalized it with ADRRN. Before conducting this survey programme, several meetings and discussion were held among the project team. The detail survey summary report is attached as annex - I.

Survey analysis of impact of emerging issues

After conducting the survey programme DCH analyzed the survey data and find out the gaps on health and safety issue in the industries of Bangladesh. The survey analysis report was sent to ADRRN for their comments and suggestions to develop training manual and materials. The findings of the analysis is attached as annex - I.

Prepare and develop various training materials, module and manual

DCH has developed training materials and awareness tools like training manual and module and logistic support. To develop the training materials and manual DCH conducted several discussion meetings among the training expertise and project personnel. All the training materials were sent to ADRRN for comments, suggestions and finalization. The training manual and materials are attached as annex-II.

Conduct training and awareness programs to enhance the capacity building

From the analysis of need assessment survey in three factories, DCH and ADRRN selected “Binni Garments Ltd. Workers and Managerial Staff” as boundary beneficiaries to provided training programme on “Awareness Training Programme on Industrial Safety” for upgrading knowledge

Need Assessment Survey in the Factory 

Training manual development meeting

Awareness Training Programme 

and skill on heath risk reduction during disaster. In this factory they have an experience on fire disaster. The workers hall room of the mentioned factory was hired as training venue. Up to now according to the training schedule DCHT conducted three training programmes, where a total number of 364 participants (including workers and managerial staffs) have got awareness training programme. The topics of these training programmes are as follows.

• Present Situation of Bangladesh Industries Disaster Risk • Fire Safety Training • Industry Building Collapse • Earthquake Training • Primary Health Care Safety Training

Information on Training Programme

Sl No Date Venue Total Male Participants

Total Female Participants

Total Participants

01 24 January 2014

Binni Garments Workers Hall

52 84 136

02 31 January 2014

Binni Garments Workers Hall

32 73 105

03 07 February 2014

Binni Garments Workers Hall

42 81 123

04 14 February 2014

Binni Garments Workers Hall

Detail Training Report is attached as annex - III

Workshop with various stakeholders to advocate about the issues DCHT has made a plan to organize a training workshop on “Industrial Safety in Bangladesh” on 27 February 2014 at Dhaka Community Hospital. This training workshop will be jointly organized by DCHT, SEEDS and NSET with the support of ADRRN and AUSAID. The main issues of the workshop are as follows:

1. Fire Safety in Industries 2. Industrial Building Safety

Awareness Training Programme Awareness Training Programme

3. Emergency Health Care during disaster 4. Response on Disaster Risk Reduction in the industries.

Monitoring and Evaluation of the programme

From the beginning of the project DCH monitoring and evaluation team monitored and visited all steps of all activities like training survey in the factory, manual development and training session in the factory by using the monitoring and evaluation tools. The visits of monitoring team are essential to obtain feedback from the boundary partners, which are directly benefited from the awareness and training programme.

OUTPUTS • All the workers and staff of Binni Garments Ltd. have got awareness training on fire safety,

building collapse, earthquake and emergency health care in factory disaster. • A trained fire safety team and committee being established. • A trained emergency health care team being established for health providing will be formed for

Disaster Risk Reduction and Response with the active participation of industrial workers and local community health workers.

• An Emergency Disaster Management team being formed by including workers and managerial staff.

• A factory safety training manual and module being developed.

Awareness Training Team Awareness Training Session

Feedback from the training session Need Assessment Survey Team