Field Visit to Harirampur Island

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I joined Kohinoor and Nezlee for a site visit to a new region in which Tarango will begin working. This is an extremely remote village on an island. We made a 4 hour drive, an hour boat ride, and then rode a horse cart the rest of the way.

This village has about 10,000 families who are severely effected by global warming. They have a rainy season every year, but now the rain lasts 6 months and the severity has greatly increased. Many homes, roads, and services have completely washed away.

Tarango has a several step process when they first enter a new village. The first thing they do is a program similar to Heifer International. They will bring in 100 cattle and 300 assorted live stock over a period of a year. Qualified women can receive one of these animals free of charge, but the first offspring must be given to a neighbor. This gives these poor women an immediate jumpstart to improving their living situations.

The second thing they will do is education. The two field managers, who will live in the community for 5 years, will work with the women every day. They will explore what the women’s interests are, but also teach them skills to use in their current environments. One of these is how to live with the increasing water levels. This includes securing their homes and techniques to grow agriculture on top of the water.

The third thing they will do is offer their savings program to the women. Providing them a safe place to save money and paying 6% on these funds. It will not be for a year or two before the women will be ready to apply for micro loans to start businesses.

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