Updated: 11/16/2012

Goal: $11,000

About this Mission Project

The River Gypsies live in the most remote areas of Bangladesh where their crops can be ravaged by floods or wild elephants. Their neighbors take advantage of their lack of education and poverty.

Rashid, a cunning leader of the River Gypsies is trying to bring change to his people. In order to break the cycle of poverty, they are working with Symbiosis and International Ministries to learn how to read and write, grow better vegetables and improve sanitation. This project will help create a self supporting community where the children can go to attend school. It also opens opportunities to present the Gospel in their cultural context.

$100 will create a demonstration garden so the people can learn how to compost, fertilize and grow vegetables for nutrition and surplus sales.

• $100 will create a demonstration garden so the people can learn how to compost, fertilize and grow vegetables for nutrition and surplus sales.
• $250 will subsidize the cost for tubewell (bore) or help 10 people to take a 9 month literacy course.
• $500 will pay for books & teaching honorariums for 20 women to learn how to read and write.

Mission Project Specifics

This project seeks to raise $11,000 to change the lives of some of the most disadvantaged people in Bangladesh. The purpose is to provide help in literacy, sanitation, and income generation for some 540 women, 20 men, 100 preschool students, and 200 more in the neighboring community. This project will be managed by Mr. Akand and Mrs. Nasima Khatun of Symbiosis, Bangladesh. It is anticipated that this project will improve the overall education, health and economic level of the community.

Connect to this Mission Project

• Pray with Walt White and his partners in Bangladesh that the benefits of this project will continue to spread through the whole community, which is in one of the poorest of Bangladesh.
• Share this information with others in your community and in your church family.

[CAPTION FOR PHOTO]

For generations, the River Gypsies earned money from snake charming, selling trinkets and other village forms of entertainment. But they can’t compete with television and DVDs so they need to adapt. The River Gypsies want to find safe, stable, and socially acceptable ways of earning a living in today’s Bangladesh.