During their field visit they met and discussed with local government representatives and community peoples to know about the immediate impact of this project & for future directions. After field visit they also met with the executive members of ECDO. It should be mentioned that ECDO is implementing this project in the indigenous area to create awareness and ensure capacity building for the local indigenous people’s organization such as; Community Based Organization (CBO), Traditional Social Structure (TSS), and to ensure their rights for education, land and other rights on indigenous issues in the aspect of national and international.

ECDO have already some significant achievements under this project within this short period of time, which is appreciated by different stakeholders and civil society members. One of the mentionable achievements is that after getting different training under this project access of indigenous peoples to the different local government offices increasing gradually. Now they have gained some capacity to bargain about their rights with the local government authorities.

The main objectives of this meeting were as follows;

• Sensitizing deputy commissioner and other district level government offices on indigenous issues.
• Introducing present situation of indigenous peoples to different local government offices as well as civil society.
• To get attention of local government authorities for the solution of existing indigenous people’s problems on education, land, health, human rights & for other important issues.

It should be mentioned at the beginning of the meeting the Executive Director of ECDO made a presentation on the present activities of ECDO & the existing situation of indigenous peoples.  In this meeting among the participants there were present different representatives from civil society, government and non government organizations. The deputy commissioner office gave some commitment to work for the solution of existing indigenous peoples problems. They also suggest to indigenous leaders to share with deputy commissioner office any kinds of problems on indigenous issues, so that they can take proper steps for solution. Finally, the deputy commissioner office thanked to ECDO for organizing like this exceptional important meeting on indigenous issues.

1. 1. Constitutional recognition of indigenous peoples.
2. 2. To form another special standing committee for indigenous at Sylhet City corporation and at union level where indigenous peoples are living.
3. 3. To ensure primary school for all indigenous community villages.
4. 4. To recruit indigenous community teachers at primary school considering the problem of language barrier for indigenous children.
5. To ensure mother tongue primary education for indigenous children.
6. To ensure government scholarship for the poor meritorious indigenous students.
7. To form a separate plane land indigenous ministry.
8. To preserve quota at college level and University level (especially for Sylhet region) for indigenous students for a specific period of time.
9. To provide training & loan facilities for ensuring employment opportunity of indigenous youths and girls.
10. To provide hostel facilities for the poor indigenous college and university students.
11. At last to ensure land rights for the indigenous community.

At the end of discussion session the honorable guests were also disclose the journal Annual Review of Ethnic Affairs Vol V, which is being published by ECDO every year on the occasion of world indigenous day since 2005. Mentionable that most of the indigenous leaders appreciated very much our honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, for her important message on this day. The program was held very successfully with support from Oxfam GB at M. Saifur Rahaman auditorium, Sylhet, Bangladesh. Most of the local and national dailies covered this news emphasizing very highly.

 ECDO organized a Consultative Meeting with the Union Parishad to review their action plan progress for the past and coming year. ECDO is taking such initiative to make sure that Indigenous Peoples gain by ensuring equity in the disbursement of Union Parishad (UP) resources approved from the central government. The Union Parishad chairman reviewed the last year’s action plan and listed their achievements for the year, what is still being implemented and assured that those objectives not met will be accomplished in the coming year.

The indigenous people expressed their appreciation to the UP chairman for the work that has been done already and said they were very happy with the progress of the last year. For the coming year the UP chairman committed to building a Temple at Goabari village, Jaintapur upozila, under Sylhet district. Finally, ECDO on behalf of the Indigenous Community requested the UP chairman to ensure that the Social Safety Net Program (SSNP) such as Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) and Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) were properly distributed to the community. Mentionable that ECDO arranged like this consultative meeting at 5 Union Parishad in Sylhet Districts Northeastern part of Bangladesh. 

ECDO formed a pressure group named Subidha Banchito Nagorik Odhikar Forum (Citizens Forum for the Rights of unprevilezed Group) on the 28^th March, 2009. The objective of the formation of this group was to ensure justice and empowerment of Indigenous Peoples. For many years the Indigenous People have been silent when they have been victims of Human Rights violation, and the group realizing the need to protect these victims was formed to take charge in reporting cases of human rights violation to relevant officials. OXFAM GB is offering its support by setting aside a small budgetary concession to ensure justice of victims of Human Rights violation. The group is comprised of 12 members from different civil society organizations such as Academicians, Advocates, Medical and Media professionals, Development workers and Human rights Activists. These members will be holding a bi monthly meeting at ECDO office in Sylhet town to discuss matters arising in Human Rights and act as a watchdog for the upholding of Human Rights in  Sylhet region, Bangladesh.

In the recent past this festival has been slowly fading out and realizing the need to revamp this ancient traditional festival, this year ECDO gathered journalists and well renowned leaders to attend the festival. The festival managed to attract a record of over 3000 people, the highest ever, including newly elected Upozila chairman (2^nd layer of local government institution), several prominent local leaders and local journalists who published the day’s celebration. A publication named HOKTOY was also published on the occasion of this festival

Education Materials Distribution Programme:

The Education Material Distribution (EMD) Programme was held on 8th June 2008 at Kushal Patro Indigenous Village, Khadim Nagar, Sylhet. ECDO organizes these programmes yearly from its own fund and this year it went further by adding to the programme of an open discussion with its stakeholders. During the discussion session, ECDO found that 8 indigenous secondary school students had been expelled from school due to not having school dresses. ECDO and the participants then requested the local Union Parishad (UP) Chairman who was present as the Chief Guest of the discussion session to donate school dresses for those kids. The guardians greatly appreciated these efforts made by ECDO and UP Chairman. At the moment, the students are now back to school, just after receiving their uniforms.

Recruitment of Two indigenous teachers at local government Primary School:
With the support of OXFAAM GB, in April 2008 ECDO has recruited two indigenous teachers to teach students in their mother language for the first three years of education. Research has shown that most of the indigenous students struggle with the language barrier as it is their first introduction to Bengali language during their early years of school.

One of the Indigenous commynity teacher is teaching khasi indigenous students with their own mother tongue

This causes mental anguish to the young students as they struggle to keep up with the mainstream students leading to higher drop out rates and low performance. The objective for this project is to overcome this language barrier for the indigenous students and ECDO is establishing this project as a pilot programme and if successful, ECDO’s aim is to appeal to the government to adopt this strategy for all schools with a high number of indigenous students.

Under this project our main activities are:

Facilitate Training of Trainers for Master Trainers and Peer educators:

Under the umbrella of HASAB, ECDO recruited 3 Master Trainers (MT) and 25 Peer Educators (PE) in its campaign to spread awareness on HIV/AIDS and offer knowledge on Life skills to the youth of Northeast Bangladesh. The age limit for the MT and PE is 15-24 yrs. ECDO being a gender sensitive organization ensured fair representation and therefore recruited thirteen females and twelve males as PE and two females and one male as MT.

ECDO organized 5 day training in Dhaka by HASAB for Master Trainers. The course contents included water born diseases, HIV/AIDS and STDs, future decisions making process and adolescent health problems. The present situation of HIV/AIDS globally and in Bangladesh was also explained to them. After the training it was their duty to disseminate their learning to the peer educators.  Another 5 day training was organized by ECDO locally in Sylhet town for the training of the PE.

Formation of Youth groups:

The peer educators are responsible for running youth groups and it is expected that they will disseminate their learning to the community. ECDO formed 38 youth groups, consists of 20 members for each. The groups are from all parts of Sylhet Upozilla so as to ensure the most effective spread of training. The female PEs are to give training to females and males to male for ease of discussion. The groups comprise of youth between the ages of 15-24 yrs, and these sessions are conducted for two hours daily for 8 consecutive days. The time and venue should be identified by the participants to ensure their convenient attendance. 

Gate keeper meeting with guardians:
The need for the guardians’ permission plays a vital role in participation of youth groups in the LSE project. Taking this into consideration, ECDO organized 20 gatekeeper meetings with the guardians of youths. ECDO ensured the participation of a minimum of 30 guardians per meeting and the main aim was to sensitize them on what the trainings were about, its benefit to their youth and their participation in the programme. This ensured greater participation of the youth.

Organizing condom seller training:

ECDO has organized training for the Condom sellers, already completed four of this. The trainings are divided into two- Pharmacist training and the Vendors (Grocery/ Health worker) training. Each group has 27 participants and the sessions involved discussion on the usefulness of Condoms and how to use it properly and the session also encouraged the participants to offer assistance to their customers.

Set up of Youth friendly health corner:
A Youth Friendly Corner has been set up at ECDO main office in Sylhet town. Master Trainers are here everyday for about three hours to offer counseling services to the youth plus hold sessions with PEs to check on their progress and offer guidance. ECDO staff is also available to offer any assistance to the master trainers when needed.

Due to these pressures, ECDO has since 2007 been involved in helping the indigenous people with legal problems by linking them with various organizations and agencies. Organizations such as Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Bangladesh National Women Lawyer Association (BNWLA) and other legal and civil societies have been approached to help solve these issues. Today, ECDO enjoys good relations with these organizations and they have become a major resource for the community, solving all the issues delivered to them. Presently ECDO is providing legal assistance regarding land, fake case and violence against women issues with the help of BLAST. Among the beneficiaries, three are female and four are male.

ECDO realizes the difficulty in the development of the Indigenous People without resolving their internal conflicts and therefore the organization tries to mitigate internal conflicts among indigenous communities. ECDO therefore organizes conflict mediation meetings presided by local Union Parishad (UP) Chairman to resolve these issues. Recently, on 23rd Oct, 2008 a land conflict resolution meeting at Goabari, Jaintapur Upozella was held and disputes were resolved. This initiative by ECDO is greatly appreciated by the community members and local government representatives.