Summary

Program goals

CWFD is a non-political, non-profit voluntary organization run by women of Bangladesh to support, promote and protect the interest of women in Bangladesh by providing community based health care, empower community to exercise their rights to eliminate social injustice, creating economic opportunities, empower under privileged youth of urban and rural population and develop human resources for a positive social change

Key program components

CWFD runs 22 clinics throughout the country and targets women of urban slums and other poor urban communities. These clinics provide preventive health care services or essential service packagea (ESP). ESP has 3 major components which includes: - Maternal Health, comprised of: - Antenatal and postnatal care - Family planning - RTI/STI - Child health and integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) - Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI) - Child Health and Limited Curative Care (LCC), which caters for basic curative care. Along with these basic services 4 clinics provides safe delivery service and 2 clinics also provides emergency obstetrics care. Door step family planning service to clinic based maternal and child health services covers a population of about 2 million at city corporation, district, sub district and rural level. There are 28 service outlets of CWFD throughout the country which provides different services to the community people. CWFD emerged from an emotional response to help women in need of reproductive health care counseling. The organization, originally named as “Concerned Women for Family Planning (CWFP), started its voluntary activities in 1974 to help the refuge coming to Dhaka city after the devastating famine of 1974 and was registered in 1975 with Directorate of Social welfare. The organization formally launched its project activities in 1976 with only 5 female staff to cover an area of Dhaka city comprising around 50,000 people. Rather than following any working model, these workers used their hearts and logic to disseminate family planning information amongst poorest slum dwellers. Initially, CWFP had a single focus program of family planning. Over time, the organization realized that mere improvement of health status through family planning would not sustain an insignificant change in women’s life in Bangladesh. Accordingly, the organization initiated new programs for women, men, children and adolescents encompassing primary health care, life skill development, creating economic opportunity and women’s empowerment against social injustice. In conformity with this shifting focus, the organization changed its name to Concerned Women for Family Development (CWFD).