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Bangladesh: Whether Caritas Bangladesh operates community services in health and family planning in Barisol (including sex education, abortion, HIV/AIDS prevention, etc.); whether the organization employs Muslim citizens as field staff under this program; societal attitudes towards Muslim field workers of this organization; protection available to Muslim field workers if ill-treated (January 2004 - July 2005)

According to its annual report for the fiscal year 2003/2004, Caritas Bangladesh does operate community services under a program entitled "Community Health and Family Planning" (CH-NFP) (2004, 8). Under this program, services include:

... awareness raising programs regarding different health problems (malnutrition, common diseases, hygiene, safe motherhood, etc.), especially concerning reproductive and adolescent health, natural Ovulation Method in the field of planned parenthood, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, and so on. CH-NFP also emphasizes family life education ....

[The] [p]resent phase of CH-NFP activities are being implemented in eight Upazilas under seven Regions and in coordination with the different Caritas Regional Offices, Parishes and other NGOs. During the reporting period, a total of 980 training courses, seminar[s], workshop[s], counseling [sessions] including group [counseling], [and] field training were organized for [19,385] participants ....

... During the reporting period CH-NFP conducted training on HIV/AIDS and attempted to formulate a program policy on HIV/AIDS.

Safe Motherhood project is another component of CH-NFP. Through this project training has been provided to village midwives (Caritas Bangladesh 2004, 8-9).

The following information was provided by Caritas Bangladesh in 20 July 2005 correspondence to the Research Directorate (the questions in bold were posed by the Research Directorate):

1. a) Does Caritas Bangladesh operate community services under the health and family planning program in Barisal?

b) If so, what kind of services does Caritas provide under this program?

Caritas operates some community based health projects under its Community Health and Natural Family Planning Programme all over Bangladesh including the Barisal area.

The services provided by Caritas include reproductive and child health care, HIV/AIDS prevention, safe motherhood, etc.

2. a) Does Caritas Bangladesh employ Muslim citizens as field workers under the health an family planning program in Barisal, Banglaesh?

b) How are these Muslim workers perceived by others in the society (i.e., are they seen as enemies of Islam or as trying to convert the population to Christianity)?

Caritas employed a number of Muslim field workers including women under the health and family planning program all over the country including Barisal.

Our observation is that the Caritas Muslim field-level health and family planning workers are well accepted by the community people everywhere.

3. Are there any reports of Caritas Muslim workers being threatened by fundamentalists, particularly those affiliated with Kidmatul Jeehad?

Fortunately, in Caritas working areas our Muslim workers did not face such situation[s] in recent times.

4. What protection is available to Caritas Muslim workers against ill-treatment?

As we have no report, so far, on ill-treatment, the matter of protection to Muslim workers against ill-treatment does not arise.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Caritas Bangladesh. 20 July 2005. Correspondence.
_____. 2004. Annual Report: Major Results Achieved During the Year FY 2003-2004. <http://www.caritasbd.org/pdf/achievement_03to04.pdf> [Accessed 16 July 2005]

Additional Sources Consulted

Asia Partnership for Human Development (APHD)

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, in Montreal, did not respond to a letter requesting information.

Caritas Internationalis, in Vatican City, did not respond to a letter requesting information.

Internet sites, including: The Bangladesh Journal, BBC, Caritas Internationalis, Christian Monitor, European Country of Origin Information Network (ECOI), Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), The New Age, Relief Web, World News Connection (WNC).

Topics: Muslim, HIV and AIDS,