Pidim Foundation 1995

Name and address of the NGO:

Organization’s name	: Pidim Foundation
Head office	: 29/1(New) Senpara Parbata, Mirpur-10, Dhaka-1216, Bangladesh.
Telephone
Mobile
E-mail	: banerjee.pidim@gmail.com
Website	: pidimfoundation.org
Contact Person	: Advin Barun Banerjee, Executive Director, Pidim Foundation.

Legal Status:

Pidim Foundation is registered under

Sl.	Registration Authority	Registration/ Certificate Number	Date of Registration	Place of Registration
1	NGO Affairs Bureau	923	18-03-1995	Dhaka
2	Society Registration Act 1860	S-2544(137)/2001	21-03-2001	Dhaka
3	Micro Credit Regulatory Authority Act 2006	162	16/03/2008	Dhaka

Background:

Pidim Foundation (Pidim), a philanthropic organization currently serves approximately 63000 poor and marginal households through multifarious development programs in 32 upazilas of Gazipur, Narsingdi, Narayanganj, Sherpur, Kurigram and Khagrachari districts. It was founded in the year 1992 by a group of ducated and likeminded social workers aiming to improve life and livelihood of the hard to reach people focusing primarily on women and children. It started its journey by implementing a child sponsorship project in the outskirt of Dhaka city with local funding. Pidim later on launched a FS&NI (Food Security and Nutrition Improvement) project in Gazipur in 1995 with grants from DIA (Dutch Interchurch Aid), the Netherlands. The project was further extended in the adjoining areas of Sripur and Kapasia upazilas with donations from Episcopal Relief and Rehabilitation, NY, USA. Based on Gazipur experience Pidim embarked on FS&NI project in Jhenaigati and Nalitabari upazilas of Sherpur district in 2002 with grants from Cordaid, the Netherlands. More than 16,000 poor and marginalized people were covered under the projects. The project contributed to a great extent to development of nutrition and health status of the target people. The area being most vulnerable to natural hazards Pidim gradually shifted its focus on CMDRR (Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction). The problems like drought, flashflood, elephant incursion and malaria caused major disruption of normal life of the people in target areas. Pidim joined government and local counterparts and stakeholders to work out and implement plan to develop people’s resilience to natural hazards through training and community mobilization. Besides it set up a Vision Centre in the Premises of Pidim Jhenaigati office complex in collaboration with Islamia Eye Institute and Hospital (IEI&H) Farmgate, Dhaka. The Vision Centre has been properly equipped with medical equipments/gadgetries by IEI&H. Doctors from IEI base-hospital in Jamalpur district visit the centre twice a week and attend patients with refractive errors and other eye problems. The doctors also perform operation of cataract at the base hospital with minimum costs. Pidim also time to time helps IEI to run eyes camps in remote areas. Many people including poor and destitute are still being benefitted from the program.

Pidim embarked on a development project in Raumari upazila of Kurigram district in January 2011, aiming at development of health and income security for elderly people. The initiative was a part of joint endeavor of HelpAge International, Bangladesh and Shiree, an intermediary organization supported jointly by GOB and DFID. More than 500 ultra-poor elderly people benefitted from the project. There are two more projects being implemented by Pidim in far-flung areas of Sherpur and Khagrachari districts with grants from Cordaid, the Netherlands. They are PUSM (Promotion of Universal Safe Motherhood) and ECD (Education for Children with Disability). PUSM is being implemented in three upazilas of Khagrachari district in CHT. The project set up 9 Base Clinics in the remote hilly land and instituted a referral system for timely hospitalization of women with obstetric complication and thus reducing mother and child mortality rate in the area, covering more than 10000 households. A contingent of 90 trained health workers are now providing routine ANC (Ante Natal Care) and PNC (Post Natal Care) to the targeted households. Of them, 36 were imparted intensive training for six month in midwifery by doctors in Khagrachari district hospital. They will take over responsibility from the medical staff working in Base Clinics before graduation of the project. On the other hand ECD is being implemented in Jhenaigati upazila of Sherpur district. Its goal is to integrate CwD (Children with Disability) into the mainstream education system and help them become worthy citizen of Bangladesh. A total of 240 children with various types of disabilities included in 12 pre-primary schools step up under the project. Of them, 56 got admission of local government schools after completion of pre-school education for one year. The project arranged training for school teachers in 29 schools in ‘inclusive education for children with disability and help school authority build ramp and modify toilets to meet the special needs of the students with disability. Besides, the project staffs work with the parents to help children with disability in ADL (Activity of Daily Living) and sensitize the issue of disability in the area.

Pidim became a partner of PKSF in 1997. In total 42786 households were included in the micro finance program covering 26 upazilas in the district of Gazipur, Narsingdi, Narayanganj and Sherpur as on 30 June 2015. Pidim disbursed BDT 6889.8 million worth of IGA loan among the group members under various loan categories. On the other hand it recovered BDT 6130.3 million from the group members and the recovery rate was 99.69%. Pidim strictly adhered to organizational policies in delivery of loan. This helped prevent loan defalcation and retain quality of the program. Moreover Pidim embarked on Enrich programs of PKSF. It is a multi-faceted and integrated program aiming to resource enrichment and capacity building of poor and marginalized households for eradication of poverty. The program provides a wide range of services related to education, training, health & sanitation, social capital formation and creation of new economic opportunities. The program is being implemented in Lasmanpur union of Sherpur Sadar upazila covering more than eight thousand households.

Pidim embarked on ‘accounting and portfolio’ automation in July 2011 and successively brought all 31 branch offices under the program. Pidim gradually discarded manual system of recordkeeping after commissioning of the software in its branch offices. The MIS Cell managed by two Technicians and one MIS Officer, looked after computer automation. Pidim simultaneously adopted policies to facilitate management of computerized data entry and reporting system. Computer automation greatly enhanced capacity of the organization to readily access field data and put a check on errors and data manipulation.

Vision, Mission and Core Values/Beliefs:

Vision: A just society, where everybody irrespective of their caste, creed, sex, religion, social or political affiliation, value orientation will live in peace and harmony under the bond of universal value of love and compassion manifested by our God.

Mission:
To serve the powerless and most vulnerable people and facilitate building their life through access to productive resources, training, awareness raising, social mobilization, advocacy and lobbying.

Core Values/Beliefs:

People’s empowerment,
Justice and equality,
Cultural/ethnical diversity,
Participation and inclusiveness,
Sustainable livelihood for the most marginalized people namely women,
children, elderly people and people with disability,
Ecological harmony,
Transparency and
Accountability.

Organizational Objectives

Help create a protective environment for most poor and marginalized people through development of livelihood, access to medical care and social inclusion.
Promote ‘inclusive education’ for children with disabilities through networking with government and non-government actors/stakeholders.
Reduce maternal and child mortality rate through training, social mobilization and linking people with government health delivery systems/institutions.
Help set up water supply and safe sanitation/sanitary toilet systems including promotion of proper hygienic practices at both family and community level.
Help women realize their reproductive, social and economic rights through awareness raising, lobbying and advocacy.
Ameliorate family economy by providing alternative livelihood options through financing IGA, training and market value chain development.
Promote low input sustainable agriculture practices/technologies that help sustain agriculture yield over long time.
Help protect stock of domestic fowls and animals by arranging training and vaccination camps with the help of government livestock department.
Help combat social problems like dowry, polygamy, early marriage etc. through community mobilization and building linkage with government and non-government actors/stakeholders.
Work with local community, government counterpart including law enforcement agencies to protect women and children from domestic and social violence, human trafficking and also provide legal support to the victims of rape and physical violence.
Sensitize local community to conservation of micro environment and sustainable agriculture practices.
Help local community in building their resilience to natural disaster and in climate change adaptation through networking with LEB (Local Elected Body) and government counterpart.
Mainstream DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction) in all the projects/programs of Pidim and participate in post disaster response and recovery work wherever needed.
Connect with government and non-government organizations/departments and establish issue based partnership to accelerate development of extreme poor and marginalized community.

Program/Project undertaken by Pidim Foundation during last 4 years

Srl. No.	Name of the program/ Project (Beneficiaries)	Duration of the program/project	Total program/ project cost	Financed by	Present status of the program/project
1	Micro Finance Operation (37,953 members of 2153 groups in 26 Sub-districts under 5 Districts)	This program started since the year 1997 and has been continuously ongoing	BDT 52.63 million	Palli Karmo Sahayak Foundation and group savings	Continuously ongoing with a recovery rate of 99.04%
2	Promotion of Universal Safe Motherhood (54,675 people of 10,964 household of 8 Unions, 3 Sub-districts under Khagrachari district of Chittagong Hill Tracts.	October, 2012 to 30 September 2015	BDT 50.20 million	CORDAID, the Netherlands.	This program will be phased out on 30th September 2015.
	Education of Children with Disability (180 Differently Able Children + 60 Normal Children of 4 Unions, Jhenaigati under Sherpur District.	September, 2013 to 31 December 2015	BDT 23.80 million	CORDAID, the Netherlands.	This program will be phased out on 31 December 2015.
	Accelerate Livelihood of Left Behind Elderly Workforce (500 Household of 20 villages, 4 Unions of Rowmary Sub-districts under Kurigram District.	October, 2011 to 30 September 2014	BDT 12.36 million	DFID-SHIREE	Phased out

Staff Position

Pidim has a total of 398 regular staff members as on 30 June 2015. Under the Executive Director work the Director (Micro Finance Operation), Project Coordinator, Project Manager, Upazila Coordinator, Finance Officer and host of other senior management staff helping in execution of various projects and programs. Of the total, 133 are Field Workers directly involved in implementation of various programs, 46 are Supervisory Staff, 36 are Technical Staff and 15 are Support Staff.

Organizational structures

A General Committee consisting of 21 members is the constitutional head of the organization. Members of the General Committee are people coming from different walks of life with benevolent and philanthropic background and they render voluntary services to the organization. General Committee elects a 7-member Executive Committee every three years. The Executive Committee renders services in terms of key planning, overseeing implementation and evaluation of various activities carried out by Pidim, following policies and guidelines adopted in the General Committee Meetings and bylaws of the organization. The Executive Director of Pidim Foundation is an ex-officio member of Executive Committee and designated as General Secretary. The Executive Director being chief executive of the organization is responsible for execution of development programs/projects and utilization of organization’s resources including finance in accordance with policies and guidelines of the organization.

Networking with other Donor, NGOs, Forum and partners:

Member of Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR), Bangladesh.
Member of Disability and Inclusive Development Network – lead by Centre for Disability in Development
Strengthening Capacity and Networking of NSA-A & LA-s on Disability
Member of Credit and Development Forum (CDF).
Bangladesh NGO WHS (World Humanitarian Summit) Consultation Group