More Light for Rohingyas and Host Community in Cox’s Bazar Bangladesh
Goal: To provide vulnerable Rohingya refugee households and host communities (with a focus on people with disabilities, pregnant and lactating women and young girls) with high quality and easily repairable solar lamps and Solar Home Systems to help out with their security conditions at night and also to create an enabling environment of work in the society and community after sunset.
Project Area
Maheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar Sadar and Camps 5,6, 8W, 8W,10, 4
Target Group
Rohingya refugee households and host communities (with a focus on people with disabilities, pregnant and lactating women and young girls)
Beneficiary Coverage
880HH
Funding Agency
Electriciens sans frontiers
Achievement
640 vulnerable Households of Rohingya Nationals and 240 vulnerable Households from Host community received solar powered lights.
Challenges
• Starting activities in the Camp was a challenge because all on a sudden there were some unruly activities, for which all new work was stopped for a particular period. Thus the work got delayed by almost a month.
• No work by any NGO, except Govt agencies, was allowed for the Ukhiya host community. As per the permission and instruction given by the district administration of Cox’s Bazar, the distribution was done in Cox’s Bazar Sadar and Maheshkhali Upazila, rather than Ukhiya.
• Project areas being highly populous and needy communities, managing large number of beneficiaries with limited resources is quite difficult.
• Getting permission from different levels of government office was very much time consuming and challenging.
Lessons Learned
In the SARPV working FDMN camps and host community, there are approximately 80,000 (Eighty Thousand) households. Most of them are in need of solar systems to light their houses and enlighten their lives. Currently, very few Households are getting support. A comprehensive plan should be made to provide the necessary support to all needy households to make them smile.
