This project exists to renovate 48 communal toilet facilities in slum communities across Dhaka to ensure they are safe and “women-friendly”. Toilets will have lockable cubicles, and be equipped with electricity, running water and menstrual products. The facilities will be designed and delivered in conjunction with women in each host community to ensure toilets meet the safety, privacy and health needs of the women and girl residents. Each women-friendly toilet facility will directly benefit an average of 30 girls and women.
In Dhaka slums, people don’t have toilets in their homes and communal toilets are used by an average of 60 people each. Current facilities are unhygienic and women are vulnerable to attacks due to the lack of privacy and locks. This project will ensure women and girls have a safe, comfortable space for their toileting needs and the opportunity to manage their periods hygienically and comfortably. The wider slum communities will benefit, as toilets will promote a cleaner environment.
The expected project outcomes are as follows:
We will conduct a baseline study with women and girls across each of the target slum areas to gain an understanding of the availability and accessibility of toileting facilities as well as their physical and psychological needs and priorities. This baseline survey will inform the design stage of the project.
Once we have completed the renovations and the community is confidently managing the ongoing running of the facilities a comparative study will be conducted to compare the project’s results and measure the outcomes.
Each Just Peoples project is designed and delivered by a local leader from the country of implementation in collaboration with their local community. All Just Peoples project leaders are part of a global community of 16 leaders who are all tackling poverty in their local communities and share learnings between them.
This project will be led by Bangladeshi social entrepreneur Sharmin Kabir, who is on a mission to ensure women and girls are safe, educated and live with dignity, all month long. Sharmin and her team have been building toilets in slum communities for women across Dhaka for the last 3 years and take on board the learnings from each community they work with to strengthen the design of future interventions.
Those interested in funding this initiative have the opportunity to meet directly with Sharmin via video call. They'll be able to learn more about the project and the local context for women living in slum communities across Bangladesh and determine whether supporting this project will help them meet their goals of contribution.
Following the delivery of this program, the project funder will have the opportunity again to meet directly with Sharmin to hear her reflections about the impact that the program has had on Bangladeshi women.
We believe in a world without poverty. Where people have the power to solve their own problems, their own way. We don’t believe that foreign intervention is the key to solving poverty. We believe that real, sustainable change comes about when people are given the resources to lift their own communities out of poverty. We tackle global poverty by supporting grassroots leaders to design and deliver locally appropriate solutions to the challenges their communities face. Just Peoples currently has 16 Project Leaders from across Africa, Asia and Mexico who are bringing to life a wide-range of projects based on delivering health, education, technological, gender-based and economic outcomes for people living in poverty. Our Project Leaders are effective because they have a deep understanding of the local context of poverty in peoples’ lives, and have established respected relationships in their communities. Their insight and expertise make them the best people to understand problems, and implement lasting changes that work. So far we have delivered 100 grassroots projects globally, impacting the lives of over 85,000 people living in 13 countries around the world.
