Sreepur Village Bangladesh
Providing intensive, holistic support to highly vulnerable single mothers and children
Sreepur Village Bangladesh works to transform the lives of single mothers and children in Bangladesh who are escaping climate-related poverty and abuse.
Every year Sreepur Village in northern Bangladesh provides around 500 single mothers and their children with long-term support, including housing, healthcare, education and vocational skills.
Single mothers arrive to Sreepur Village having suffered from extreme poverty, trauma, health problems, homelessness, malnutrition and lack of education. The charity offers schooling and vocational training in a variety of areas so the women can support themselves and their families once they leave Sreepur Village and return to society.
Each family can live on-site in the village for up to three years and since 1989 the charity has provided long-term support to over 8,000 single mothers and children. Mother leaders are elected from among the service users to advise the management team and the charity currently employs 17 former beneficiaries in the village.
It also runs an outreach and support project for those living in remote river basin communities, and because of its knowledge of the region, when the worst floods in decades hit in 2022, social workers were able to quickly mobilise and coordinate the distribution of emergency supplies.
The charity has recently developed the Sreepur Village app to provide online services, tools and digital literacy training to supplement the core activities for mothers at Sreepur Village. It is now piloting the app with a small group, but once it is launched the charity hopes to reach an additional 10,000 impoverished women across Bangladesh every year.
In one year, 2022, the charity spent £364,216 on its provision, a cost per service user of £526.
Charity Awards judge Martin Edwards said the charity was delivering very good value for money, adding: “39% of mothers arriving in the village are illiterate and 48% of children had tapeworm on arrival. One hundred per cent demonstrated improvement in literacy and none of those children now have tapeworm – those are just a couple of examples of their outcomes.”
CC reg no. 1085008
