Bangladeshi Solar Energy Boat project wins US$60,000 Ashden Award
London, June 22: The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy, held in London, United Kingdom, awarded ventures from Bangladesh, China, India, Laos and Tanzania first prizes of US$60,000 each to further their schemes. Projects ranged from solar-powered home systems and mini-hydropower plants for remote villages, to food waste and dung biogas plants for urban areas.One of the prize winners for Education, Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha designed a fleet of solar-powered boats to deliver education and supplies to the remote Chalanbeel region of Bangladesh. The locally produced boats provide floating classrooms for primary level schoolchildren, and are equipped with a library and Internet access.
“Bangladesh is a land of water, and during the five month monsoon season two-fifths of the country is flooded,” says the organisation’s executive director, Abul Hasanat Mohammed Rezwan. “Children can’t go to school, so we thought the school should come to them.”
The boats also bring training in sustainable agriculture to local farmers -surveys suggest this has increased their income by up to 45 per cent. With the prize money, Rezwan and colleagues plan to design a new, all-purpose boat, containing all the facilities in one vessel.
“Due to climate change, over the next 20 years, ten per cent of our land will be lost to floods,” says Rezwan. “Issues like this need local solutions, and local people need to be involved at every level.”
A project to turn waste food into cooking gas has picked up US$60,000 in an international competition to find the best sustainable energy schemes. The project in India collected the prize in one of the five international categories of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy.
Another prize winner, the Beijing Shenzhou Daxu Bio-energy Technology Company from 
China, has developed a new biomass stove that burns agricultural waste and wood instead of coal. The stove is 40 per cent more efficient than conventional stoves and produces little smoke, decreasing the problem of indoor air pollution for rural Chinese people. The stove reduces the cost of cooking and heating by 50 per cent, and can be fitted with a boiler, bringing hot water and central heating to homes, some for the first time.
Pan Shijiao, one of the founders of the company, points out that there are many benefits to the stove, including health and environmental ones. A biomass stove produces eight tonnes of carbon dioxide less in a year than a coal stove. This can have a major impact on climate change, Pan says, especially if the stoves are used throughout China and other developing countries.
In recognition of the importance of these ground-breaking initiatives in the fight against climate change, former US Vice President Mr Al Gore, will present the prizes at the Ashden Awards ceremony held at the Royal Geographical Society, London, on 21st June. The event will be hosted by Anna Ford and attended by grassroots, public sector and business enterprises, with an additional VIP event.
“Our winners show how sustainable energy can improve health, education and livelihoods and at the same time reduce carbon emissions,” said Sarah Butler-Sloss, who headed the judging panel.
“If these technologies were expanded and replicated on a large scale, they would play a significant role in helping us to tackle climate change and poverty. What we need now is the political will to scale up and roll out these solutions” he added.
Sunlabob Renewable Energies Ltd of Laos won light and power and Tanzania’s Zara Solar Ltd won the Africa award.
The Ashden Awards were founded in 2001 by the Ashden Trust, one of the Sainsbury family charitable trusts. They are awarded each year to deserving projects that can benefit local communities and also be expanded to boost sustainable development.
The international categories cover enterprise, food security, light and power, education and welfare, and Africa.
— Sources: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=463683&in_page_id=1965 http://www.scidev.net/gateways/index.cfm?fuseaction=readitem&rgwid=2&item=News&itemid=3706&language=1 http://www.newbuilder.co.uk/news/NewsFullStory.asp?ID=2016Category: South Asia
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Arafat bhai,
Thats really a great news for us, for Bangladesh. The project make me believe once again, that our father of nation said: we will fight with whatever we have. Yes! we will.
Congratulations to the project and to all whoever makes that happen. I have published to eduBangla.com’s blog at http://edubangla.wordpress.com.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks
Are any one know the details activities and address of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha?
This organization received the 2005 Access to Learning Award for its innovative use of boats to deliver education and technology to isolated communities in flood-prone regions.
Now This organization again received Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy for building up a fleet of 88 boats that use solar energy to bring education, training and renewable energy supplies to over 400,000 people living in the remote Chalanbeel region of Bangladesh.
This is a huge success for Bangldesh. Unfortunately I don’t get any response from Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, when I try to contact with them.
I got the information regarding this organization given below:
Mr. Abul Hasanat Mohammed Rezwan
Executive Director
Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha
SHIDHULAI SWANIRVAR SANGSTHA
GPO Box No. 876, Dhaka 100000
Bangladesh
PH: 880 189228241, 880 1713245101
FAX: 880 2 8056282
E-MAIL: info@shidhulai. org
Look in the address line Dhaka 100000, is this possible? I try to contact with over this two mobile phone (0189228241, 01713245101) but both of the phones are switched off. I sent e-mail through the info@shidhulai. org 10/12 days ago but still I don’t get any reply from him.
If you have any contact details about Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, please give me details.
Regards,
Mohammad Kawsar Uddin
The Daily Sangbad
well welll … if they have previously received awards and grants as
foreign donation, they must be registered with the NGO affairs bureau of
GOB. You might get their contact details there.
I’ve never seen (or even heard) them participating in any ICT4D
events, program, networks whatsoever within the country. Neither have heard
about any events (e.g. workshops, recruitment, trainings, conference)
organized by Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha? A fleet of 88
boats and 4, 00,000 population coverage is no small deal. This at least
required 88 part/full time staffs. Where did they come from in the
remote Chalanbeel region? Do anyone of you have any publication (e.g.
annual report, poster, brochure) of SSS?
I partially remember a previous posting in Bytesforall by someone of
SSS in response to Dr. Ananya Raihan’s queries. Could h/she be kind
enough to respond once again (with their contact details)?
Our intention is not criticism for the sake of criticism, but to learn
about best practices for replication.
Peace
– – –
Debobroto Chakraborty
Programme Officer
Information & Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) Unit
Young Power in Social Action (YPSA)
URL:http://www.ypsa.org
Cell: +88 01716 842745
Land line: +88 03028 56279
Add: House # F 10 (P), Road # 13
Block – B, Chandgaon R/A
Chittagong – 4212
Bangladesh
Debobroto dada you have raised some interesting points. So far I remember, not only Mr. Ananya Raihan, Mr. Reza Selim, Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman and few others previously raised voice about SSS and their achivements. Some of them even wrote aricles in daily newspapers. I always noticed one point is common in their discussions, that is no can reach SSS. Few journalist previously showed interest to visit SSS. But we did not get any information from them.
If the above situation is the one side of the coin then the other side of the coin is SSS already got huge coverage in two mostly reputed daily newspaper. One is Daily Prothom Alo and another one is Daily JaiJaiDin. Daily Prothom Alo gave the coverage in their first page and JaiJaiDin in their Focus Page.
We are really confused! We want to believe our news media!!!
Thanks to all.
Mohammad Golam NABI
great news again.i think what SSS can do–at least they can arrange some programs at national level & show the multimedia presentations of their work.
also i think it is the media who can really disseminate the information of their work among the people including all the stakeholders of ICT. So they can at least invite the members of ICT journalist forum to visit the field to gather practical experience about the project & how it is contributing to the overall development of that particular region–chalanbeel area.
good wishes for SSS.
with regards
tareq ahmed
OVC
I search in the the NGO Affairs Bureau website
http://www.ngoab.gov. bd but I don’t get the list of enlisted
NGO’s in the NGO Affairs Bureau. Moreover most of the
data in this website updated before June 2004.
But in the Legal Framework of NGO Affairs Bureau I got
the basic laws, rules which is given below:
1. Any person or organisation receiving foreign
donations for implementation of voluntary activities
shall have to be registered with the Government.
2. Receiving foreign donations without permission of
the Government by any person or organisation is
prohibited.
If any one have actual information regarding Shidhulai
Swanirvar Sangstha, please give us. I really to
explore our positive activites.
Regards,
Mohammad Kawsar Uddin
Vice President, Bangladesh ICT Journalist Forum
Mobile : 01712-198039
Bangladesh
Correct me if I am wrong ….. but I guess we’re missing two imp. points here….
Firstly, Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha have recently had quite a coverage in a) The Daily Prothom ALo b) Jai Jai Din c) Voice of South. Journalists of those news media who covered the reports must have gotten the information from reliable sources ! They must have visited the field by themselves or know about the organisation properly ! Then why don’t the interested people ask them about the insight ????
Secondly, they have recently and previously received huge amount of cash as award. The awarding institutions MUST know about SSS in details ! Don’t tell me they’re giving away $ 60,000 and previously around 5 crore taka without seeing the work at field level or knowing the organisation’s contact details properly !!! So, why don’t the interested people go ahead ask them ???
Lastly, if even the above doesn’t work, journalists always have the scope to visit the fields for their investigative reporting. Chalanbil isn’t that big an area. It shouldn’t be hard to satisfy your queries physically.
Cheers
Debobroto
Mr. Debobroto, you are correct. We also want to get
feedback from the journalists, who published report
regarding Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha. Another thing
I will assure you, I have a plan to visit the working
area of SSS within short time.
Regards,
Kawsar
Dear Friends,
Daily Sangbad already published THREE REPORTS on Shidhulai (19 January 2007, Page 16, 22 January 2007, Page 15 and 29 January 2007, Page 15 ). Each report covered half of a page. People, particularly Daily Sangbad readers are well informed about Shidhulai. Based on the news of Daily Sangbad (19 January 2007, Page 16) the Daily Ittefaq published an editorial on 22 January 2007 (Page 6 ) titled Boat School in Chalan Beel: A Unique Initiative.
Our address line Dhaka 100000 is correct as it is the code number of the Central Post Office in Dhaka (this is new GPO code). All of our office numbers work (if you try after office hours to reach us, you may fail).
We allowed many journalists to see our project in action during last year and beginning of this year, see below some of the published reports. The reports are:
The Daily Ittefaq (22 January 2007, Page 6 ) : An Editorial titled Boat School in Chalan Beel: A Unique Initiative was published in The Daily Ittefaq, a national newspaper in Bangladesh on January 22, 2007. In this Editorial the activities of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha was highly appreciated and welcomed. According to the Editorial: The boat schools are becoming more popular in every day. It has positively impacted livelihoods of 87,000 families in Natore, Pabna and Sirajganj districts using 88 boats. The boat education system is the role model to bring the school dropouts back to the mainstream education. With this integrated development approach (primary education, literacy, river & environment, soil health, reduced usages of fertilizer and pesticides, human rights, computer and technology education) Bangladesh can hope to change its present scenario.
Sangbad (19 January 2007, Page 16, 22 January 2007, Page 15 and 29 January 2007, Page 15 ) : The Daily Sangbad published three reports on the boat project of Shidhulai. One of the report was titled Boat School in Chalan Beel: Use of Solar Energy to run Computer Education. In this article the reporter describes: The boat project has impacted livelihoods of landless people by introducing solar energy on boat. With these boats Shidhulai is providing computer education, internet and solar power to light the dark villages.
Daily Ajker Kagoj (13 January 2007, Page 13) published a half page write up on Shidhulai.
Daily Jai Jai Din (6 January 2007, Page 8 ) published a full page story on Shidhulai and the boat project.
The Daily Jugantor (27 December 2006, Page 12) published a write up on the boat project.
The Daily Naya Diganta (3 December 2006, last page/ page 16 ) : Mobile Boat School & Library was featured as Boat School in the land of Rivers – School comes to Students with Library and Technology in the Daily Naya Diganta, a national newspaper in Bangladesh on December 03, 2006. According to the report, pesticide usages is reduced while increasing agricultural productivity, and school enrolment and literacy rates are increased in the project areas. The report describes how video conferencing is helping rural farmers to solve their field problems and also the use of solar energy in impacting the rural livelihoods. The report also includes the use of bicycle pumps that replaced the diesel operated pumps.
The Daily Deshbangla (2 December 2006, page 12) published a resourceful article on the last page.
Prothom Alo (11 November 2006, Page 1 ) : An article on the boat project was published in the Daily Prothom Alo on November 11, 2006. Our news was published as a Special Feature on the Front/First page of the newspaper.
New Age (5 November 2006, Page 8 ) wrote an article on the boat school.
The Bangladesh Observer (18 October 2006, Page 6) published half page article on the boat project.
The Daily Ittefaq (6 October 2006, Page 1 and 11 October 2006, Page 23 ) :
Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha was the Front Page Headline (Lead News) of the Daily Ittefaq on October 06, 2006. According to the news, agricultural productivity and school enrolment is increased in the Northern Bangladesh watersheds due to the boat project. On 11 October, 2006 Daily Ittefaq dedicated two-third of a page in describing Shidhulai approach.
We understand that all these newspapers are reaching good number of people all around the country – but we are surprised that many of you do not know about all these news coverage on Shidhulai.
Sincerely,
Tarikul
—————————-
Tarikul Hossain
Asst. Administrative Officer
SHIDHULAI SWANIRVAR SANGSTHA
House No-3, Road No-2, Sheyalbari, Rupnagar R/A, Mirpur-2, Dhaka-1216
BANGLADESH
PH: + 880 2 8051124 | FAX: + 880 2 8056282
WEB: http://www.shidhulai.org | E-MAIL: tarikul@shidhulai.org
Mr. Tarikul Hossain,
Thanks for your mail. At last some one response from
shidulai. We like the initiatives of shidulai especially deliver education and technology by boats to the isolated communities. If this initiative is working properly we may replicate it different places of Bangladesh.
Interestingly I send an e-mail through info@shidhulai.org by June 9, 2007. Unfortunately I still don’t get any reply regarding my that mail. I got this e-mail address from the official website of Ashden Awards (www.ashdenawards. org), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (www.gatesfoundation.org) and Shidhulai’s own website (www.shidhulai.org) though the
website is under constution! How much time need for
reply an e-mail !!!!!
Mr. Abul Hasanat Mohammed Rezwan
Executive Director
Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha
Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, a Bangladesh organization, received the 2005 Access to Learning Award for its innovative use of boats to deliver education and technology to isolated communities in flood-prone regions.
The program, which served about 86,500 families in 2004, covers a radius of 240 kilometers of rivers, streams, and wetlands in northern Bangladesh. The integrated program, which includes a boat library, boat school, and mobile Internet boat unit equipped with computers, mobile phones, multimedia projectors, books, and other information resources, has raised hopes in Singra and adjoining areas.
This is a very good success story in the field of ICT4D sector in Bangladesh.
SHIDHULAI SWANIRVAR SANGSTHA
GPO Box No. 876, Dhaka 100000 Bangladesh
PH: 880 189228241 FAX: 880 2 8056282 E-MAIL:
info@shidhulai. org
I got only this information through http://www.shidhulai. org webaddress. But the website is under construction.
I try to explore this success story of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha to the people of my country. Please give me the details contact & location of your project.
Your cooperation in this regard is highly appreciated.
This was my e-mail to info@shidhulai. org by 9th June, 2007. After that June 23, 2007 I send another mail to replay Mr. Md. Arafatul Islam e-mail regarding Bangladeshi Solar Energy Boat project wins US$60,000 Ashden Award.
June 27, 2007 we (3 Journalist) visit your Head office in Mirpur. At that time we talked with two officers in the office (including you). You told us, SSS have many project in different location of Natore, Pabna, Siraggonj etc. You hesitated to provide information to us. At that time Mr. Rezwan was not in Bangladesh. You told us Rezwan is the best person to talk about the project. And the project manager (Who lived in the
project area) also know about the project. Instantly
we talked with the program manager (Mr. Shu Prokash
Pal) but he talked us to collect information from the Dhaka office. You have no officially prepared paper regarding SSS work and achievement. Your Program officer assured us to give some paper regarding overall activities of Shidulai Swanirvar Sangstha as soon as possible.
Now June 28, 2007 you reply my mail.
I contact with GPO they provide me the following post
code.
1000 Dhaka GPO, 1100 Dhaka Head Office, 1203 Wari, 1204 Gendaria, 1205 New Market, 1206 Dhaka Cantonement, 1207 Mohammadpur HS, 1208 Dhaka Polytechnic, 1209 Jigatala, 1210 BD Sharif, 1211 Posta, 1207 Mirpur Housing State, 1212 Gulshan Model Town, 1213 Banani, 1214 Basabo, 1215 Tejgaon, 1216 Mirpur Sector 1, 1217 Shantinagar, 18 Mirpur Bazar, 1219 Khilgaon, 1221 Mirpur Sector 12, 1222 Banga
Bhaban, 1225 Sangsad Bhaban
But they told me 100000 may be the new post code. So, may be your post code number is ok.
Many newspapers published news regarding your project. That’s fine. I hope any of the journalists from them told us the story, but no one response the issue. I try to talked with the reporter (Natore) of Sangbad, who report the SSS project. He was busy and he told me he will call me later. But still I think this a hugely positive matter for country. We proud for achievement of SSS.
1. You have address in Dhaka (This is may be your Head Office) but you use GPO Box. No. address in your contact!!!!!
2. Your are trying to do deliver education and technology to isolated communities through Boat but your website is under construction! !!!
3. You have Telephone number (8051124) in your office but you use mobile number as a Telephone number in your contact.
This thing also should be solved as soon as possible for transparency.
Regards,
Mohammad Kawsar Uddin
The Daily Sangbad
Correspondences between Shidhulai and BNNRC
Dear Friends,
Mr. Bazlur emailed us on September 20, 2006 requesting for a visit at our project site, and we replied on the next day asking him if he is ready to meet us on the next week.
In his reply, Mr. Bazlur asked Mr. Rezwan (our Executive Director) to visit his office (BNNRC) during the first week of October. On September 24, Mr. Rezwan wrote him:
Due to our other commitments we are unable to meet you in the first week of October, appreciated if you could meet us at our office either today afternoon or tomorrow morning.
Since then we did not receive any phone call or email from Mr. Bazlur. Now he is saying that he has a very little idea about Shidhulai. He cannot blame us for not knowing our activities. If Mr. Bazlur wants to know about our activities he has to come to our office on the scheduled time, and it is indeed very difficult for any Shidhulai staff to travel around all the offices in Dhaka and explaining people about boat project.
Please see BELOW our previous correspondences with the Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC).
Sincerely,
Tarikul
—————————-
Tarikul Hossain
Asst. Administrative Officer
SHIDHULAI SWANIRVAR SANGSTHA
House No-3, Road No-2, Sheyalbari, Rupnagar R/A, Mirpur-2, Dhaka-1216
BANGLADESH
PH: + 880 2 8051124 | FAX: + 880 2 8056282
WEB: http://www.shidhulai.org | E-MAIL: tarikul@shidhulai.org
—– Original Message —–
From: Abul Hasanat Mohammed Rezwan
To: AHM Bazlur Rahman
Cc: Tahmeema Hossain ; Suprakash Paul
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 12:55 PM
Subject: Re: Regarding visit ICT4D project of SSS.
Dear Mr. Bazlur,
Many thanks to you for your email message. Due to our other commitments we are unable to meet you in the first week of October. Appreciated if you could meet us at our office either today afternoon or tomorrow morning. Please let us know if it is ok with you.
With best regards,
Rezwan
—– Original Message —–
From: AHM Bazlur Rahman
To: Abul Hasanat Mohammed Rezwan
Cc: Suprakash Paul ; Tahmeema Hossain
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 8:54 AM
Subject: Re: Regarding visit ICT4D project of SSS.
Bangladesh NGOs Network for
Radio and Communication
Promoting Communication Technology for a Fairer World
http://www.bnnrc.net
Dear Mr. Rezwan,
Very good morning from BNNRC Secretariat.
Thank you very much for your mail.
I would be very happy if you visit our BNNRC Secretariat by the first week of October.
Hope to see you very soon.
With best regards,
———————-
AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID)
House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh
Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105
E-mail: ceo@bnnrc.net, bnnrc@bd.drik.net,
bnnrc@siriusbb.com http://www.bnnrc.net
At 07:37 PM 9/21/2006, Abul Hasanat Mohammed Rezwan wrote:
Dear Mr. Bazlur,
Thanking you very much for your email message and also for your kind interest in our organization. If you are in Dhaka at some point and have time, I would enjoy talking to you about both your project and ours. Would you be available to meet us in the next week ?
With best regards,
Rezwan
—————————-
Abul Hasanat Mohammed Rezwan
Executive Director
SHIDHULAI SWANIRVAR SANGSTHA
House No-3, Road No-2, Sheyalbari, Rupnagar R/A, Mirpur-2, Dhaka-1216
BANGLADESH
PH: + 880 2 8051124 | FAX: + 880 2 8056282
WEB: http://www.shidhulai.org | E-MAIL: rezwan@shidhulai.org
—– Original Message —–
From: AHM Bazlur Rahman
To: info@shidhulai.org
Cc: ni
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 5:42 PM
Subject: Very Urgent – Regarding visit ICT4D project of SSS.
Bangladesh NGOs Network for
Radio and Communication
Promoting Communication Technology for a Fairer World
http://www.bnnrc.net
Dear Sir,
Greetings from Bangladesh NGOs Network for Rdio and Communiation.
We would like to visit ICT4D project of SSS.
We would be very happy if you take necessary initiatives in this regard.
With best regards,
———————-
AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID)
House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh
Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105
E-mail: ceo@bnnrc.net, bnnrc@bd.drik.net,
bnnrc@siriusbb.com http://www.bnnrc.net
Dear Mr. Tarikul Hossain
It is indeed difficult for me to understand why are you being ultra defensive about answering some legitimate questions raised about your organization and in the process of defense, blaming and slandering others? Really makes one wonder, doesn’t it?
In today’s world, having a website is the best way to let the world know bout your activities. Despite giving the impression that your organization is very Tech savvy (solar powered Internet equipped boat and all), your website is under construction. Can you update us since when it is under construction? I couldn’t find any previous snapshot of your website in Internet Wayback Machine (http://web.archive. org/web/* /http://www. shidhulai. org). Also an INTERNIC whois information turned up that your website was registered on 2nd September 2006, for 1 year (http://reports. internic. net/cgi/whois? whois_nic= shidhulai. org&type=domain), and it was last updated on 2nd November 2006. My guess is the site was never functional, and probably will remain like this before the registration expires in 3 months time.
In your first mail , you have given a summary of the media coverage your organization enjoyed and expressed your surprise that many of us do not know about your organization and about the coverage you received. No one ever said that they didn’t hear about your organization or didn’t see your coverage. In fact a few remembered the coverage that was given on your organization, but when they tried to find ways to contact you, I guess they hit a hard wall. There is no way to get your physical address, you apparently take ages to answer e mail s sent to the only e mail address available on your website and it seems the mobile number you have made available on your website doesn’t get answered. Can you blame us for not knowing enough about your organization? I wonder how these organizations who handed you handsome rewards got your information! If you had prepared presentations for those organizations, why don’t you upload those in your website and let us also know more about your organization?
A few years back I saw a documentary in some TV channel on an Indian project called “Hole in the Wall” (http://www.hole- in-the-wall. com/). I was moved by the idea and was thinking when we Bangladeshis can have a similar project of which we can be proud of. Although I heard about your organization when you were awarded Access To Learning Award in 2005, I didn’t know much about your organization except for the name and when first read about your organization in Daily Prothom Alo, I was impressed and was truly proud about the innovative approach you took to spread literacy. But after reading these mail s and doing a little research myself, I cant be so sure now. Can you blame?
I sincerely hope that you keep on doing what you were rewarded for doing and help this forward this country. Please do not waste time by replying my e mail , rather try update your website ASAP so that others can also know what wonderful job you are doing. Even if you “copy/paste” the grantee profile of your organization available at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it will quench the initial thirst for information on your organization.
Regards
A. K. M. Muktadir
Channel Manager, CCG
Ingram Micro Asia Ltd
muktadir@ingrammicro-asia.com
I am observing the comments from last month and lastly decided to comment as I saw a mini documentary is the CSB news channel few days ago. There CSB highlights that they use the solar power as a source of home lighting system by charging battery with solar pannel and there is not a word about the award they got!!!!! There idea is excellent but I just surprised that sss correspondence dnt say anything about there achievement (boat school project)!!!!! in the documentary sss highlight that their service is now free and soon they will charge every family tk 40/month for a solar powered lamp.
Chack it out
Regards
Surajit Sarkar
Agricultural Engineer
Agricultural Office
Nalciti, Jalakati
sarkarmym@gmail.com
I am observing the comments from last month and lastly decided to comment as I saw a mini documentary is the CSB news channel few days ago. There CSB highlights that they use the solar power as a source of home lighting system by charging battery with solar pannel and there is not a word about the award they got!!!!! There idea is excellent but I just surprised that sss correspondence dnt say anything about there achievement (boat school project)!!!!! in the documentary sss highlight that their service is now free and soon they will charge every family tk 40/month for a solar powered lamp.
Chack it out
Regards
Engr. Surajit Sarkar
sarkarmym@gmail.com
Dear All,
So far the outcome from ICT sector is not satisfactory. Since 90s we were expecting many success stories from the sector. But still the sector is lagging behind for some causes. We have to admit corruption is one of the causes. For the corruption by a few organizations or people the sector is suffering a lot.
I believe a big portion of people of the sector is against the corruption. So we saw some courageous members of BIJF took a bold venture against the corruption. They did not hesitate to take risk for the needs of investigation. So efficiently they visited every nook and canny of the SHIDHULAI SWNIRVAR SANGSTHA, which is a part of investigative journalism. I saw they have good expertise on investigative journalism.
Specially I am giving thanks to the members of investigation team. They provided us many information on corruption. How a corrupt NGO bagged many awards? It is indeed mystery. I am requesting them to contact with ‘Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’, ‘UNDP’ and ‘SFCT’ to know more details on the awards. I think another Pandora box will be opened if they ask the donor bodies.
Awards money is not free from taxes. So we should know how much the awards winners paid to the national income tax body. Every ICT journalist should go where corruption is taking place. Specially I am requesting BIJF to give us more such investigative reports in future.
All ICT journalists must be united against corruption, conspiracy and any threat to the sector.
Best wishes,
Shahidul K K Shuvra
Why do we always have to sell our poverty to win a prize and fill our pockets.. ITS SO PITY..
This projects sounds so great to those western medias and to some of our hopeless and shameless NGOs who will rather make our miseries as a source for entertainment. I bet this project will go nowhere as soon as the money gets dried out and there will be nothing to those poor people…
Rawshan Iajdani
iajdani@yahoo.com
Dear Sir,
With best regards. Here it is inform to you that I Mohammad Kamrul Islam Managing Director of KAMRUL BIO GAS & COMPOST FERTILIZER RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT CO.LTD.I am working on renewable energy specially on bio gas plant, improve cooking stove and solar energy (lighting only) for a long . I worked under IFRD (BCSIR) since 1996 to 2004. And now I am working with German Technical cooperation (gtz) and IDCOL,bangladesh on bio gas plant construction .Here it is mentioned that we are giving a certain subsidy to the subscriber and also giving all kind after construction on service at free of cost for 5 years .On the other hand we are getting a minimum service charge from the donor organizations only.
However , as we are working only on renewable energy there fore I am interested to work on solar home system by which we can easily help our rural people at this stage. Because ,there is a very short fall of electricity facilities in the rural area of Banglabesh .So if we will give solar home facilities to the aforesaid persons that will be very appreciate able matter to them. However my company is running in small scale for want of adequate financial support ,so that , if there is any scope to give support technically and financially at your end that will be highly appreciated by me . If require and possible, please response. If you require to get more information regarding us. you may please contact through my mobile no +88-01196011187 and e-mail no-kamrulbiogas@gmail.com .
Thanking you.
Sincerely yours
Mohammad Kamrul Islam
Managing Director