Lars Forsbergs speech at the 30th anniversary of Sister Community Association, SCA, Sweden

Lars Forsberg's speech at the 30th anniversary of Sister Community Association, SCA, Sweden

(Vänortsföreningen Jönköping-Bangladesh) on 26 September 2009

30 years passes quickly when you are looking back. SCA was formed in 1979 after a decision of-of the local council. Then I didn´t know how the decision would influence my life - and in the extension, many others live.

Inger and I responded to an appeal from the commune when it called for an open meeting at Focus in order to found SCA. A temporary board was formed and Bertil Bengtsson, who was the mayor at that time, accepted to be chairman in the initial stage. The group of politicians who had worked out the conditions for the foundation of the association was led by Ingemar Josefsson, who later on became very interested and active himself.

Life consists of a lot of choices and the choice to join SCA from the start when it was formed, has given me personal experiences and understanding which has influenced me deeply - something which no textbook could give. In one way Bangladesh has become my university. Furthermore, this work with the association has given me many wonderful friends in Bangladesh as well as in Sweden.

The first section in our constitution says: " the aim of SCA is to work for close and lasting relations with places in Bangladesh. These relations can be in form of aid, cultural exchange, fair trade and to arrange contacts between associations, institutions and individual persons." To give money to large aid organizations, which I had done before, now looked simple in comparison to the responsibility which was demanded of us who had chosen to run SCA.

The first two years we tried to learn as much as possible about the country Bangladesh by running study circles. In order to get a more vast knowledge about aid, we arranged two seminars where we invited large as well as small aid organizations - their experiences gave us the understanding that cooperation with local organizations was positive. And through a tip, we came into contact with the organization Shapla Neer and we cooperated with them from 1981 to 1992.

Åke Marstorp, who is among us today, was in the board from the start. As he had worked in Bangladesh, he had valuable experiences to share with us. Sylvia Leijon, who also had worked in Bangladesh, joined the board somewhat later. But with the help of Sylvia we introduced many questions concerning values on the agenda. Everyone who knew something about Bangladesh was important to us in the initial stage.

The first journey to Bangladesh Inger and I did in 1982. At that time Mahfuz worked with Shapla Neer and he was our interpreter and host during our stay.

The meeting with Bangladesh was bewildering, to put it mildly. To sleep on an earth floor in a bamboo-house with all the exotic sounds in the night was a valuable experience. To travel in a nouka on the river, to balance on bamboo-bridges, to let others bike us around in a cycle rickshaw, to meet with people who never had seen a white person and to encounter their incredible curiosity and hospitality was great and memorable. These are experiences which are under our skin and which actually can´t be described to others. You have to be there.

Many of you who are sitting here have joined in our journeys. And I know that you, exactly as I, has become fascinated of this small country, its people and its culture. One of the young people, who accompanied us on one journey, said after an hourlong walk-in Dhaka the first day: "I am not the same person now as I was when leaving the hotel". And so is it perhaps with every one of us who have met Bangladesh - we have got new perspectives upon our own lives and a new standard to measure with - to measure what is important or not.

During our first stay in Bangladesh, we made several study visits to different aid organizations in order to learn and watch. We distinctively felt that aid is utterly useful if it is integrated and covers a family´s all needs as employment, health, and education.

After 11 years of supporting Shapla Neer in Shallabad and Amlabo, we gave an onetime support for BAM´s tree plantation and DCI´s village development. But already in 1992, we began to cooperate with Sangjog which Mahfuz had started. In 1994 our cooperation started with SUS and Rokeya. These are two fantastic partners with a vast knowledge and incredible energy. Furthermore, both are working very seriously and are today using a right based approach which means that the organizations are suggesting solutions and function as catalysts instead of giving service only. This is a way of working which strengthens peoples self-esteem and capability.

SUS and Sangjog work in a rather similar way and their programmes include group formation and micro-credit, education for children and adults, health programme which include handicapped, cultural programme, Hiv/Aids, human rights and environment.

At two occasions SCA has offered travel grants for young people in the commune. And when Charlotta Frits, today Zackrisson, as a new nurse saw the conditions of the government hospital in Netrakona, she rouses the idea among us to give support for a hospital or a health center for the poorest in Netrakona. Three years later, Inger and I had the opportunity to take part in the opening of this healthcentre to which SCA was one of the major donors, thanks to money donated by our members and a gift from Jönköping county council. There was no SIDA-support for this.

Our small association, because we are small concerning aid, has over 30 years contributed with around 5.740.000 Swedish Crowns of which 4.500.000 is SIDA-support. The own input of our association has been around 1.300.000 Sw Crowns. Enormously much has been carried out with this money. But the success has to be credited for our partner organizations which through good guidance and skillful staff have been able to fulfill their ambitions in improving the livelihood of the most vulnerable people in their home country.

Our members, who faithfully share their incomes, are of course the base to the functioning of the association at all. There are reasons on a day like this, to render a big thanks to our members who believe in what we are doing and continue to give us their support.

Has the support led to changes? Yes, numbers and statistics as well as the reality shows this. The evidence is many but let me give an example from the village Ponchanonpur. There a women group, after being educated, organized the formation of a democratically elected village council with representatives from all groups in the village. A woman was chairman and through her newly acquired knowledge that the authorities existed for them, they had applied for money to improve their roads and build bridges in order to manage to flood better. They had applied and received money to build a communal house and they were making an inventory of the conditions in the village. They knew who needed a house and who needed employment and they set targets to help these categories. There were also targets for getting a high-school in the village, improved healthcare etc. By having taken part in SUS´s education and having received micro-credit they had supported themselves and had food. Now there was a force in these people to build their ideal village, as they expressed it themselves.

The Bangladesh which media reports about at home - floods, catastrophes, cyclones and so on are of course a part of the reality. But it is never reported anything positive about the larges resource of the country - the people. The lasting memory from all the visits is not poverty and misery but people´s colossal desire to create a better tomorrow. And I think they will succeed!

Well, 30 years pass quickly when looking back.