Khaled Musharrof Trust ( KM Trust ) is a non-political and non-governmental registered charitable organization .The Trust ,as a national support organization has been implementing different programmes on Women Empowerment, Youth Development, Self-Reliance, Socio-economic Development, Capacity Building Programmes to create sustainable impact on society. KM Trust also works in partnership and supports different local NGOs on various issue based networks and forums in a systematic and sustainable approach.
KM Trust was established in the memory of Major General Khaled Musharrof Bir Uttam who played a heroic role in the Bangladesh Liberation War . He was the sector commander of Bangladesh Forces Sector 2 and K Force Bridgade commander during the Bangladesh war of Independence. He fought heroically for the Bangladesh’s independence and was wounded in the front line combat against Pakistan Army . For his outstanding contribution to the war of Independence ,he was conferred as Bir Uttam by the Government of Bangladesh.
Objective of KM Trust:
Women Empowerment
Youth Development
Self-Reliance
Social and Economic Development
KM Trust regularly undertakes different need-based programs aligning with its objectives. It has established its strong position for comprehensive and quality program services to build institutional capacity to achieve respective goals more effectively and efficiently.
The Trust has been working to promote knowledge on poverty alleviation, useful innovative, participatory and action –oriented community services with a special focus on marginalized communities. Trust is able to solicit thousands of applications involving citizen groups representing various communities and some groups consisting of women, labourer and students from main stream communities to bring economic development and harmony.
The United Nation General Assembly formally recognised November 19 as the World Toilet Day in 2013.Defecating in open spreads various life-threatening diseases. World Toilet Day aims to tackle the global sanitation crisis ,promote sanitation and also help break taboos around toilets. According to the United Nations, the day aims to provide access to sustainable sanitation to all by 2030. According to the UN, the theme for World Toilet Day 2019 is ‘Leaving No One Behind. Sanitation is a person’s human right and despite that even today, 4.2 billion people are deprived of safely managed sanitation, the UN says.
Since people often relieve themselves near water sources (to clean themselves and remove the waste) and faeces attract vectors such as flies, diseases spread fast. Where open defecation is practised, more children die—according to one estimate, it kills 1.5m children under five every year. Women, usually excluded from the dawn assembly, have to risk embarrassment, assault and worse with sorties in the dark. A toilet is not just a toilet. It’s a life-saver, dignity-protector and opportunity-maker. Whoever you are, wherever you are, sanitation is your human right.
The provision of toilets is a necessary first step in addressing the complex sanitation challenge, though we must transform our thinking to deploy both old and new solutions in smarter ways. We need to better understand how sanitation impacts the function and form of cities and how it supports economic development and promotes equity.
About 2.5 million people in the world do not have access to a toilet. This leads to poor sanitation which causes disease and death. 1000 children died per day in 2013 due to diarrheal disease from poor sanitation. Attendance rates for girls in school decrease when there is no access to a clean and safe toilet. Toilet promotes health, dignity and wellbeing for all through sustainable sanitation by calling on the global community to do more to address the sanitation crisis. Billions of people around the world live in communities with little or no effective sanitation treatment. Without sanitation treatment it gets out into the environment and spreads killer diseases, seriously undermining progress in health and child survival. As it is important to have access to food and water, it is equally important for a human being to have access to a clean toilet to bring health, well-being and to establish human dignity UN’s “sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the world’s leaders in 2015 reads: “By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.” An “interim” target brings forward to 2025 the date for ending open defecation”. Keeping in mind of (SDG) goal Khaled Mosharraf Trust is investing to build separate toilets for girls in the public schools.
An effort to reduce the number of girls dropping out especially once their menstruation starts ,the trust is working with students regularly with awareness programs such as UTI , child marriage ,teenage pregnancy and still birth and diseases which are all connected to a decent toilet .We believe apart from providing privacy, these girls toilets will also boost sanitation and health generally. With the generous sponsorship from our partnering organization YoungOne Corporation.We have successfully installed 2 washrooms each in 30 schools in Islampur upojela ,jalampur district . These washrooms are private rooms with secured doors and locks ,equipped with bulbs inside and outside , running water to flush and basins to wash hands .
School List:
Islampur high school, Islampur upojela, Jamalpur district. Molomjonj high school, islampur upojela, Jamalpur district. Belgacha high school & B. M college, Islampur upojela. Jamalpur district.
Globally, one in five women are married before they turn 18 years old. A decade ago, the rate had been one in four. Poverty, ideas of family honor, social norms, customs and religious laws are factors that could force girls into child marriages. But the consequences can be devastating. Marriages can rob girls of their childhood, compromise their development and put them at risk of early and complicated pregnancies. They often pay a heavy price in not getting an education or access to proper health care and economic opportunities. Child marriage is a violation of human rights. It adversely affects education, health and well-being of girls and perpetuates cycles of poverty. Child brides experience the detrimental physical, psychological and social consequences of child marriage. This is a global phenomenon and a grave cause for concern.
Child marriage is a complex phenomenon related to various socio-economic factors, and is deeply rooted .Although Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty, almost 1 in 4 Bangladeshis (24.3 percent of the population) still live in poverty and 12.9 percent of the population in extreme poverty. Poverty plays a huge role in child marriage. According to UNICEF, Bangladesh has the fourth highest prevalence rate of child marriage in the world. About 71 percent of rural girls get married before reaching 18 years of age, and that deprives them of their right to education.
UNICEF’s latest report shows environmental disasters are linked to climate change are threatening the lives of over 19 million children in Bangladesh—including prompting many families to push their daughters into early marriages. The other factors driving child marriage in Bangladesh includes cultural, lack of access to education, social pressure, harassment, dowry and insecurity. Our society still thinks girls are weak and incapable to work and earn an income and often consider them an economic burden.
Many girls themselves internalize the belief that they are simply a burden to their families and therefore want to get married young to help relieve their families. Then there is the fear of harassment which often leads to abuse and rape. According to police reports, last year there were 16,253 incidents of violence against women and children. In our society, if a girl has been raped or sexually abused in any way, it decreases her chances of getting married in the future. So many parents simply take their daughters out of school to protect them from abuse and ensure their viability as brides in the future. Demand for dowry also encourages child marriage because younger brides typically require smaller dowries. And failure to meet the demand of dowry often results in violence against the bride, after marriage. Child brides, even if they are not physically or emotionally ready, are often expected to bear children soon after marriage—which not only exposes a young girl to profound health risks from early pregnancy, but is considered one of the leading causes of higher maternal and infant mortality. Teenage mothers are twice as likely to die during childbirth and babies born to mothers under 14 are 50 percent more likely to die than those born to mothers aged over 20. Young brides not only bear children earlier, but have more children over their lifetime than women who marry after the age of 18. KM Trust has been involving families, communities and different social organisations to raise awareness about the harmful consequences of child marriage to change societal attitudes and reduce the acceptance among those who make the decision to marry off minor girls. We need to understand that exclusion of 50 percent of the population (women) from both the workplace and the market remains the greatest barrier to accelerating economic development. KM project is working towards creating awareness to prevent child and early marriage and encouraging continued education among rural girls.
The widespread abuse of drugs has become a human tragedy. In Bangladesh about 80 per cent of the drug addicts are adolescents and young men of 15 to 30 years of age. Drug abuse is now prevalent everywhere both in rural and urban areas. Virtually all segments of society are severely affected by this problem. Near about 25 lakh people are drug addicted. According to a WHO survey, most drug users are young, their age ranging from 18 to 30 years. Meanwhile, a separate study conducted by the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition (JHPN) of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) shows that in the capital, 79.4 percent of the users are male and 20.6 percent are female.
Drug addiction has fuelled an increased rate of dropping out of educational institutions, and anti-social behavior is also on the rise. According to police, In the last two or three years, many more teens have been arrested for using drugs than ever before. Meanwhile, law enforcers are overburdened with a large number of narcotics-related cases. Sources from the Bangladesh Police Headquarters reported that the total number of drug-related cases were 213,529. This means that at least 46% of all cases filed last year were related to narcotics. It is estimated that the number of addicts in Bangladesh is more than six million who spend over Tk 70 million every day on illegal narcotics, say studies and intelligence reports. Young people abuse drugs due to complex social and peer groups influence, frustration, depression, curiosity, a sub-cultural and psychological environment that induce the youths to take drugs. The average age of the drug addicts is 22. Students are mostly falling victims to drug abuse, which eventually lowers their standards of education and attendance at schools and colleges.
Major risk factors responsible for drug abuse are family disorganization, parental neglect, parent-child conflict, loss of spouse strife, indiscipline, isolation, lack of emotional support, rejection of love, overprotection, unemployment, repeated failure, and personality maladjustment and easy availability of drugs. For the past two decades, Bangladesh has struggled to find an effective and sustainable solution to substance abuse, which has had deleterious effects on the country’s development. Severe drug addiction has affected the productivity of a major portion of its human resources, especially the youth. Physicians say weaning someone off drug addiction is difficult, but not impossible.
Support from family and friends, professional help from doctors, and will power of the patient during inpatient or outpatient drug addiction treatment may help to end dependence on drugs. We need to return the addicts to the country’s pool of human resources. Preventive education against drug abuse is essential effective enforcement of laws by the law enforcing agency is needed to curb drug trafficking. The whole community should participate in awareness, raising program which is important to change the negative behavior of the youth. If we fail to control of this problem.it will destroy the whole civilization. Khaled Musharraf Trust is working with the youth and their families on grass root level to counsel, campaign and create awareness on the dreadful consequence of drug-abuse.
Over the last decade, we see terrorist activities on the rise worldwide, To prevent and tackle violent radicalisation and extremism has thus become more important than ever for every country . Since early 2000s there has been significant investments in policies, programs and interventions aimed at tackling these issues.
Radicalisation is a phased process in which an individual or a group embraces a radical ideology that can lead to an increased willingness to condone or use violence for political goals. In recent years there have seen a shift, in focus away from more traditional security measures to more holistic approaches which seek to build resilience to violent extremist ideologies at the individual and community level, and to address what we understand to be the root causes of violent radicalisation.
In August 17, 2005 ,Bangladesh faced the first terrorist attack when synchronized bomb blasted by the banned outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen (JMB) in 63 districts rocked the whole country , waking the nation up to the menace of rampant radicalization.
However, the pressing need to counter radicalization re-entered the limelight in the wake of the Holey Artisan attack in July 2016, when five youths stormed a café at the heart of the diplomatic zone, murdered 20 hostages and 2 police officers. This event forced domestic and international policymakers to reconsider the extent to which jihadist militancy had taken root in Bangladesh. Jihadist militancy, suggests that the appeal of jihadism has spread and that jihadists may be able to tap a new constituency from which to recruit, even if thus far only in small numbers.
Following the attack – the worst in Bangladesh’s history – the government earned praise at home and from abroad for its strong efforts to wipe out homegrown militancy. According to Police Headquarters, as of October 2017 a total of 920 cases had been filed and 3,676 people arrested in connection with militancy, while over 500 suspected militants have been released on bail.
Though Prime minister Sheikh Hasina Immediately declared a “zero tolerance” policy for dealing with militants and terrorism, youth in Bangladesh are still, a key target group for radicalization and recruitment by violent extremist groups, which includes youth from all socioeconomic backgrounds. The country’s large proportion of youth in the population, youth unemployment and high levels of internet and social media use by them facilitates radicalization and recruitment Therefore there is an urgent need to show them the right path. We need to start developing channels of communication with the general populace which has always been a significant factor in curbing terrorism. Some of those channels have already been developed but those need to be enhanced so that there is enough inflow of information from the general public to identify and combat these factors.
Developing social resilience is absolutely critical and we must harness that ability of our society to fight the menace of terrorism. This is not just a security problem—it is a national problem, a societal problem, a problem which needs to be countered for the sake of the future of Bangladesh. At the era of rising extremism, our challenge is to maintain cohesive and inclusive safe society for all. Deradicalisation and awareness programs by Khaled Mosharraf Trust aims at educating and counseling the youth and strives to combat radicalisiation.
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