A team from  UK Department for International Development (DFID) led by  Melkamnesh Alemu, Nutrition Advisor  yesterday has visited child-focused social protection model on providing a “prevention and positive” pathway and piloting an “out-of-poverty-graduation model for the urban extreme poor”.

In partnership with a local organization, namely MSSUS; Save the Children has been implementing the programme targeting 1,200 urban working children and their families living in the urban slums of Khulna City Corporation (KCC) Areas under Shiree programme.

The Economic Empowerment of the Poorest Programme (EEP/SHIREE-Stimulating Household Improvements Resulting in Economic Empowerment) aims to support the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) in achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

The team observed different activities in “Learning and Recreation Centre-LRC” where urban working children enjoy learning and recreational activities. They also meet friends, discuss their problems, find solutions and decide to participate in various forums for raising their voices.

Later, they visited a few households of the participating children and talked with their parents and community people.  

Ms. Melkamnesh expressed her satisfaction after visiting different programming activities. Asadul Islam, Project Director-EEP/Shiree, Colin Risner, CEO-EEP/Shiree, Zabed Iqbal Khan, Programme Support Officer-UKAID from DFID accompanied Melkamnesh in the visit.

Md. Muzaffar Ahmed, Programme Director of Save the Children Shiree briefed the team on EEP/Shiree programming activities. The team is to visit programme aimed for extreme poor households in Bagerhat.