Speech From Executive Director


Advin Barun Banerjee

Advin Barun Banerjee

Executive Director

The origin of Pidim Foundation dates back to 1995. It began with execution of a donor supported project aimed at improvement of health and nutrition status of mother and child in the outskirt of Dhaka city. Community based health education focusing particularly on women reproductive health and childcare was launched covering a large number of poor and middle income households. This contributed largely to develop ‘health seeking behaviors’ among the project participants. Early detection of pregnancy related complication and timely hospitalization for child delivery was the key component of the project. As a result child and mother mortality rate was greatly reduced. The problem of malnutrition was endemic in the area. Pidim promoted homestead gardening and also provided microloan for development of livestock and poultry birds in the area, which helped a lot in meeting nutritional requirements by the project participants. The activities carried out and approaches followed under the projects were gradually ramped up and replicated in many other areas in Gazipur District with added donations from Dutch Interchurch Aid (DIA).

Pidim secured PKSF, a semi government lending institution, approval as a partner-NGO in 1997 leveraging its capacity to serve people on a large scale covering distant areas. Pidim became partner of two other international donors viz. ICCO and Cordaid, the Netherlands. Two Upazilas of Sherpur District (Jhenaigati and Nalitabari) were included in the operational plan. Numerous activities viz. provide support to the older people live with human dignity free from isolation and physical sufferings, working with children with disability and help them to integrate into government school and education system, help local community build resilience against natural hazards, development of agriculture and livestock etc, were added to the project activity profiles.

Pidim adopted twin-track approach by helping the people with training/material and other supports and at the same time enabling them to access various services provided by government and other development actors, for their long term sustainability. One of the projects that was implemented in Raumari Upazila of Kurigram District, with funds from HelpAge International, was specially designed for older people with a purpose of development of their health and income security. More than 25000 of households were benefitted from those projects. A project called PUSM (Promotion of Universal Safe Motherhood) was also implemented in far-flung areas Khagrachari District of CHT, with donation received from Cordaid, the Netherlands. The project was executed with the purpose of ensuring routine ANC (Ante Natal Care) and PNC (Post Natal Care) by trained midwife including development of a referral system for hospitalization of women with obstetric complication covering 12150 households. Cordaid, the Netherland was the principal donor of Pidim Foundation for a long time, and it pulled out from Asia in 2015 and with that Pidim graduated all of its donor funded projects and eventually morphed into a Microfinance Institution.