StanChart, Brac stand by former enclave people

Standard Chartered Bangladesh and Brac yesterday launched two separate initiatives to improve livelihoods of the people of former enclaves, and to provide financial literacy to adolescents.

The livelihood empowerment scheme will be carried out among the former enclave people in Patgram of Lalmonirhat, a bordering district in the northwest.

Under the second initiative, adolescents, especially girls and secondary school students in Chittagong, will be trained on financial literacy so that they can manage money properly and improve their habit of saving.

Training will be given to 775 people in former enclaves on income generating activities such as livestock and poultry farming and vegetable cultivation. Some 400 sanitary latrines will also be built under the initiative.

"Through these initiatives the overall living standards of the people of former enclave areas will improve, and so will their health and hygiene factors," Abrar A Anwar, chief executive of Standard Chartered Bangladesh, said at a press briefing at Sonargaon Hotel yesterday.

Brac Executive Director Muhammad Musa was also present at the briefing organised to launch the initiatives.

The financial literacy programme in Chittagong will increase the participation of secondary school students and adolescents in formal banking and encourage the practice of saving with banks.

Standard Chartered and Brac said the financial literacy programme will benefit 1,040 secondary school students directly and 5,000 indirectly. Adolescents will be confident and independent enough to make financial decisions and contribute to improving their lives as well as the community, they said. “We really hope these will positively impact the lives of many people in Lalmonirhat and Chittagong," said Anwar.