Marginalized communities face significant challenges due to limited engagement with reputable organizations, hindering their access to crucial resources and opportunities. This lack of association exacerbates systemic inequalities, limiting the community’s ability to address pressing issues and hindering their overall socio-economic development. 

To address this issue, Amal Foundation, in collaboration with British American Tobacco Bangladesh and Prerona Foundation, launched six sessions of life skills training for the community development. Amal also established a Fellowship Program for BATB’s management trainees so they could engage in a variety of fulfilling community service initiatives and acquire first-hand experience working with BATB’s beneficiaries. Amal hoped to support the management trainees in gaining first-hand knowledge, exposure, and insights.

The Fellowship Program was created specifically for BATB management trainees to encourage their active participation in beneficiary associations and sessions, fostering community engagement. The aim was to motivate management trainees to give back to the community using their knowledge and abilities, emphasizing social responsibility. The trainings include –

• Basic Literacy for Adults – Basic literacy is a program designed for those who lack fundamental educational skills. The goal of this program was to assist older uneducated persons with basic literacy in mathematics, English, and Bangla. All of the target beneficiaries were able to learn and write their names in Bangla and English, developed new words, read books or documents, and performed basic mathematics during the session.
• Agriculture & Livestock Training for better lifestyle – This was a training program through which farmers were provide with different agricultural training. The session’s goal was to offer farmers with agriculture-animal husbandry skills so that they may successfully learn new techniques to incorporate into their farming and livestock processes. The initial wave of recipients got agriculture and livestock instruction, which improved their capacity to grow crops and care for animals.
• Craft Training to Empower Women – This training session was mainly for the women beneficiaries. Women who participated in the program were taught sewing, stitching, and fabric crafts such as embroidery, block printing, and tie-dying. They received advanced knowledge on how to sew face masks, garments, and various types of fabric. Beneficiaries who successfully completed the program were assisted in establishing their own businesses and also selling their items on the Prerona Foundation’s e-commerce platform.
• Community Development Through Educating Youths – Increasing youths’ awareness of community development, mental health, and physical health was the major objective of this program. The initial group of recipients included 15 male and female youngsters who were trained to address physical and mental health issues and encourage others to embrace healthy lifestyles. Additionally, female participants received instruction on menstruation and personal hygiene.
• Awareness Campaign on Basic financial literacy and fraudulent transactions – Fraud transitions have become very common matter in rural area. This happens when a person who are dealing with finance doesn’t have the basic financial literacy. In order to assist participants, manage their money wisely and make informed decisions, AMAL along with its knowledge partner City Alo, initiated an awareness campaign to provide sessions on financial literacy. The program has been designed for both men and wives to educate them on personal finances and household costs. To prevent and identify fraud in mobile transactions, awareness against fraudulent transactions was also incorporated into the program.
• Computer Literacy and Soft Skills Training to Empower Youngsters – Through the teaching of computer basics to both male and female young people, this effort improved computer literacy. In this session, youth studied soft skills including communication, public speaking, critical thinking, and decision-making. The youngsters were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of contests and campaigns to improve their tenacity, resilience, and perseverance. The objective was to provide them the confidence and abilities they need to explore for further opportunities to grow and prepare ready for their future career goals.