our work

The work of the MFT began in 2011 with several successful pilot projects:

The Rajapur centre - community participatory architecture

A Community Building for Women's Literacy and Healthcare, in Rajapur, Bangladesh

Mannan Foundation Trust has recently built the Rajapur Centre, a community building to facilitate free access to the education of health, hygiene, literacy and income generating skills for women. We also host regular free health-camps at the Rajapur Centre, to address the lack of access to healthcare for all villagers (men, women and children), for the low-income rural communities living in the village of Rajapur and the surrounding villages.

Our primary objective is to provide the girls and women of Rajapur with access to free education and income generating skills that will empower and instill confidence. This will provide them with a sense of identity and status, enabling them to contribute to the household income and become economically self-sufficient.

COMMUNITY participation

The Rajapur Centre has been designed and constructed through community participation, to enable community empowerment, ownership and self-sufficiency.

Our community architecture projects aim to demonstrate the value of co-design and collective design intelligence through local craft in addressing the challenges of the changing climate and social inequalities.

The community engagement includes a process of drawing out local skills that facilitates an inclusive team, giving voice to all community members (including the skills and support from men, women and children), that empowers the community. One of the most significant consequences of this method of community participatory architecture is that this enables the identification and communication of the kinds of existing methods of adaptation and architectural practices that address the issues of responding to the rapid changing climate.

The project also tackles social issues, including the fact that most girls in rural Bangladesh do not continue education beyond the age of 11. When we tried to encourage the women (who have the expertise to build with earth), to engage with the work on site, a strict code of cultural practice restricted them from working in public, side by side with men. To solve this, we set up a system whereby women built rammed earth wall blocks at home, enabling them to be central to the construction process. 

For the build our trustee and the architect Tumpa Fellows led a team of volunteers in London, offering professional services and to fund-raise for the project. In the Rajapur village members of local communities were employed for building. The community was involved from the very beginning through participatory workshops and by the adoption of simple building techniques with the aim of instilling self-sufficiency. 

Our future projects include income generating on site activities, such as fish farming, and supplemented by ongoing Training & Skills schemes (enhancing income generation) which are the basis of social and economic development for the low-income communities’ self-sufficiency and improvement of lives.

Running costs and maintenance are supported by ongoing fundraising by the charity MFT.

This building consists of multi-functional spaces that accommodate: Free educational services for women’s health, hygiene, literacy and income generating classes and free healthcare facilities for the communities.

The Rajapur centre - In use by the communities

Rajapur, Bangladesh

The construction of the building has been completed and it is in full use by the community. Regular women’s literacy classes are hosted at the Rajapur Centre, where income generating skills, literacy, numeracy courses are offered to the disadvantaged women in the community, free of charge. Our aim is to assist the most needy in the community by providing income generating skills, to allow financial independence and self-sufficiency.

The photos below are of the regular free calsses for women’s health, hygiene, literacy and income generating classes and of the free health-camps for the community at the Rajapur Centre, to address the lack of access to healthcare in the village.

The building has been designed to be resilient to the area’s challenging climate, including annual flooding and temperatures that can reach 50ºC. The building was constructed with rammed earth and bamboo, which sits on concrete stilts over a natural ditch so it benefits from evaporative cooling through its special perforated blocks. 

The Rajapur Centre construction work - phase 1

Rajapur, Bangladesh

The construction work to build the Women's Literacy and Healthcare Centre is led by one of MFT's trustees, an Architect, Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows. 

Construction Phase 1: During phase 1 the foundations were laid and the concrete columns and floor slabs were constructed. 

We hosted a number of workshops with local craftsmen to re-introduce traditional methods of building with rammed earth and bamboo, to revive the traditional methods of building. We have demonstrated ways to build with rammed earth and to treat bamboo to give the communities confidence in the local materials which are see as "low material". All the bamboo used for this building is from local gardens leading to zero carbon footprint. Energy efficiency of rammed earth is due to its high thermal mass therefore it prevents heat to transfer through the thick rammed earth wall during the heat of the summer. By utilising these natural materials we are able to keep the cost of construction to a minimum and there are no cost for cooling and heating the building.

Our aim is to provide the low-income communities living in the village ways to learn about local materials and construction methods and also to help people learn about the values in local materials. 

Women's literacy and healthcare centre - phase 2

Rajapur, Bangladesh

Construction Phase 2: During phase 2 the treated bamboo formed the structural frame which comprise of regular arrangement of trusses and columns. Through community participation existing methods were adjusted to improve the quality of the spaces in the centre. For example, to tone down the noise of rain on the metal roof, a thin layer of foam insulation were inserted underneath the profile metal sheeting which was fixed onto the bamboo trusses. We have started the construction of the rammed earth walls and produced handmade earth blocks which were left to dry in the sun and to be used to complete the wall construction for next phase of work.

Women's literacy and healthcare centre - phase 3

Rajapur, Bangladesh

Construction Phase 3: We have achieved an important milestone at this construction stage. During phase 3 the internal walls are being erected. The internal walls are constructed with a combination of rammed earth walls and hand made earth blocks. All the earth blocks were made near the site by the members of the village community. The external bamboo wall cladding is also being erected. The bamboo was sourced from local bamboo gardens and treated on site to demonstrate to the community how to maintain the longevity of the material. The walls are composed with perforation to allow natural light into the building and for cross ventilation. Through several community participation workshops, the community ownership of the building is achieved.

free english lessons

English lessons for sixty students (aged 7-11 years) were conducted in Rajapur, Chandpur, by MFT co-founder, Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows, within grounds bequeathed for a school by the late Professor Mannan.

Photos of Free English lessons in the village primary school, hosted by our Trustee Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows, in Rajapur, Bangladesh

SCHOLARSHIPS

Scholarships were awarded by MFT co-founder, Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows, to ten gifted primary students to enable them to continue their education.

Photos of Prize giving ceremony hosted by our Trustee Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows, in Rajapur, Bangladesh

free health camps

Free health camps were hosted by MFT co-founder, Dr. Nilufar Fatema. These health camps have proved very popular with the local women of Rajapur, who are much more confident in, and willing to, confide in a female doctor. Running the camps has been a huge success, with over 100 patients seen during the course of one health camp.

A variety of medicine, which has been donated to MFT by a number of pharmaceutical companies, has been prescribed and distributed to the patients attending the health camps.

surgICAL eQuIpment and medication DonAtIons

Surgical equipment was donated to MFT by Alcon and Lenstec.

Photos of Free Health camps hosted by our Trustee Dr Nilufar Fatema, in Rajapur village, Bangladesh

free eye health camps

Free eye health camps are led by one of the MFT trustees Dr. Tina Khanam (Opthamologist in London). These camps were sponsored by Biopharma Ltd and equipment donated by Barts and the London Ophthalmology Department. Dr. Tina Khanam hosts the free eye camps in Rajapur village in Bangladesh and in Jinja village in Uganda. In the rural areas most patients cannot afford the eye treatment required, the free eye health camps provide the treatments and consultation to those who ordinarily could not afford it. 

Photos of Free Eye camps hosted by our Trustee Dr Tina Khanam. Above left: Ghana, Above right: Rajapur, Bangladesh

EMPOWERING THE low-income rural communities

EMPOWERING THE WOMEN OF Rural bangladesh

The majority of girls in rural Bangladesh do not continue their education beyond the age of 11. Due to cultural and economic pressures, and with little else to inspire them, they fall into a familiar cycle: they work long hours to help their parents on their farms, they marry early resulting in child marriage, and they take on the responsibility of all household duties.

Whilst access to healthcare is already limited for all villagers of Rajapur, the situation is exacerbated for women. Due  to cultural pressures, women are strongly discouraged from consulting the male doctors who make up the vast majority of healthcare professionals in rural Bangladesh.