Marianist fights poverty in Bangladesh

By Bethany Noble, The Catholic Sun
July 5, 2007

For the last 21 years, Marianist Father Bill Christensen has worked in Bangladesh to help the poor build a better life.

More than 80 percent of the Southeast Asian country’s inhabitants earn less than $2 a day.

In 1987, Fr. Christensen founded The Institute of Integrated Rural Development, a non-profit organization that relies on grants and donations. Every three years, Christensen spends several months traveling the United States and Europe educating others on the poor in Bangladesh and on the work of his organization.

On June 23 Fr. Christensen made a stop in Chandler and spoke to several families in the home of St. Timothy parishioners Jim and Penny Kaniery.

The institute, whose stated mission is “to empower the rural poor to end their own poverty,” partners with families in a community and helps them improve their lives.

“We organize the families of the poor, sit with them and tell them if they will help, we will help,” Fr. Christensen said. “We make it a community effort.”

One of the first things the institute does in a community is set up a school for first- and second-grade children.

“The government schools are overcrowded and they rule with the stick,” he said. “The poor kids who are not used to discipline get beaten and refuse to go back. In our schools, we train them nicely with discipline and we provide the supplies that parents cannot afford.” 

As part of the program, local women are trained as teachers and mothers take turns doing tasks such as keeping the school clean.

“This way we are able to run a school for 30 kids for $600 a year,” Fr. Christensen said. The children then go back to the government schools at third grade, which are not as crowded at that level.

The institute also features economic programs that establish small rural industries to engage the community. Teams of better-educated Bangladeshi train people in rural villages to help bring a community out of extreme poverty.

“We start with young people and recruit them to work as semi-volunteers with some payment,” Fr. Christensen said. “We then have a fourth of our team as professionals who are paid according to the local market. They may be experts in agriculture, engineering, fishery or forestry.”

In one community, members took on different responsibilities to successfully establish a silk industry. Some plant and care for the mulberry trees — which silk worms feed from — while others tend to the worms, harvest the silk, make the thread and weave the fabric. 

Besides building schools and small industries, the institute also helps improve communities by providing tin roofs for bamboo homes. The roofs are durable but often cost more than a family can afford.

Fr. Christensen’s group also helps communities dig wells so they can have water.

He is hopeful that the work spreads throughout the rural areas of Bangladesh. Educating others on the work that he does is an important part of keeping the organization running.

“Signing up for our newsletter is a good way to learn about what is going on,” he said.

Jim Kaniery, who hosted the presentation, plans to work with Christensen in the future and organize talks in local parishes.

“I would like to get Fr. Bill in front of more crowds during his next visit,” he said. “It is amazing how he has been able to improve the situation of these families. They are starving and in true poverty and he makes them self-sufficient. It is a fabulous system.”