Dhaka YMCA

Bangladesh is a country with a population of about 114 million people. The vast majority of people live in the rural areas. The economy of the country is based on agriculture. Poverty has been identified as the most dominant issue of the country. The social structure which we inherited from our colonial past is mainly responsible for the social and economic degradation. After our political liberation in the year 1971 various development efforts were adopted by the Govt. Agencies and the Non-Governmental Agencies to eradicate poverty from our country.

YMCA stands for Young Men's Christian Association. The YMCA in Bangladesh was first formed in Dhaka in the year 1965. The local YMCAs in the various localities of the country were formed immediately after our liberation war in the year 1971. Relief and Rehabilitation for the war torn country was the urgent need of that time. As to respond to the need of that time the YMCAs naturally involved itself mostly in the relief and rehabilitation activities to mitigate the human sufferings of the country in the initial stage. The National Council of YMCAs was formed i n t h e y e a r 19 7 4. Presently the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh has affiliated to it ten local YMCAs spread throughout the country.

Programs to alleviate poverty and eradicate illiteracy became the primary thrust of the YMCAs of Bangladesh during its early days. Education was seen as a prerequisite to fight poverty. Most of the local YMCAs have a number of free children's schools, adult literacy programs to eradicate illiteracy and vocational training centers offering training in different trades with a view to create skilled hands to obtain employment for the youth.

Mission Statement:

Bangladesh is a country with a population of about 114 million people. The vast majority of people live in the rural areas. The economy of the country is based on agriculture. Poverty has been identified as the most dominant issue of the country. The social structure which we inherited from our colonial past is mainly responsible for the social and economic degradation. After our political liberation in the year 1971 various development efforts were adopted by the Govt. Agencies and the Non-Governmental Agencies to eradicate poverty from our country.

The YMCA in Bangladesh was first formed in Dhaka in the year 1965. The local YMCAs in the various localities of the country were formed immediately after our liberation war in the year 1971. Relief and Rehabilitation for the war torn country was the urgent need of that time. As to respond to the need of that time the YMCAs naturally involved itself mostly in the relief and rehabilitation activities to mitigate the human sufferings of the country in the initial stage. The National Council of YMCAs was formed i n t h e y e a r 19 7 4. Presently the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh has affiliated to it ten local YMCAs spread throughout the country.

Programs to alleviate poverty and eradicate illiteracy became the primary thrust of the YMCAs of Bangladesh during its early days. Education was seen as a prerequisite to fight poverty. Most of the local YMCAs have a number of free children's schools, adult literacy programs to eradicate illiteracy and vocational training centers offering training in different trades with a view to create skilled hands to obtain employment for the youth.

Main Programmes:

Empowerment of the people has become imperative to sustain the development efforts in our country. Development becomes meaningless in our context if our people do not have the capacity to sustain it. Building people's organizations has proved to be effective in this process. People's organization is basically an association which is self-governed and self-sustained by the people at the grass-root level. Decisions are taken by participatory method by the members involved in this process. The PVDO (Private Voluntary Development Organization) plays a facilitative and supportive role in this process. The YMCA movement in Bangladesh re-affirms to work for the extension of the Kingdom of God in order to restore the distorted image of humanity through building People's Organizations.

This was affirmed at the 14th General Assembly of the Asia Alliance of the YMCAs held in 1995 and the re-entry plan was elaborately worked out at the Sub-regional Conference on Empowerment of the People held in Dhaka in 1996.

The National Movement of YMCAs in Bangladesh has been involved in this process for the empowerment of the people since 1989. In this process Community Organizing Program was initiated as a peoples empowerment process in the economic and socio-political areas. The local YMCAs situated in different parts of the country were involved in this process. The thrust of the Community Organizing Program is to empower its beneficiaries in three major areas. The Economical Empowerment, Social Empowerment and Political Empowerment. We believe empowering the people in these three areas will bring a positive change in their lives.

Emphasis and goals for the next quadrennium :

The mission statement of Bangladesh YMCA was formulated through a process, taking into consideration the elements of the mission statements of the constituent local YMCAs of Bangladesh. The mission statement of the Bangladesh YMCA was formulated at the National Leaders Conference held in the month October 1996 and adopted at the 20th Annual General Meeting of the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh held on 10 January, 1997.

"The Young Men's Christian Association is a membership based, Christ centered, indigenous, international, voluntary, ecumenical youth movement. Being the witness of Christ, we commit ourselves, to work unitedly for a humanitarian society to attain justice and peace in Bangladesh."

Current Programs

Empowerment of the people has become imperative to sustain the development efforts in our country. Development becomes meaningless in our context if our people do not have the capacity to sustain it. Building people's organizations has proved to be effective in this process. People's organization is basically an association which is self-governed and self-sustained by the people at the grass-root level. Decisions are taken by participatory method by the members involved in this process. The PVDO (Private Voluntary Development Organization) plays a facilitative and supportive role in this process. The YMCA movement in Bangladesh re-affirms to work for the extension of the Kingdom of God in order to restore the distorted image of humanity through building People's Organizations.

This was affirmed at the 14th General Assembly of the Asia Alliance of the YMCAs held in 1995 and the re-entry plan was elaborately worked out at the Sub-regional Conference on Empowerment of the People held in Dhaka in 1996.

The National Movement of YMCAs in Bangladesh has been involved in this process for the empowerment of the people since 1989. In this process Community Organizing Program was initiated as a peoples empowerment process in the economic and socio-political areas. The local YMCAs situated in different parts of the country were involved in this process. The thrust of the Community Organizing Program is to empower its beneficiaries in three major areas. The Economical Empowerment, Social Empowerment and Political Empowerment. We believe empowering the people in these three areas will bring a positive change in their lives