Chakaria is one of the 500 upazilas (sub-districts) in Bangladesh. It is located
between latitudes 21o34’ and 21o55’ North and longitudes 91o54’ and 92o13’ East
in the southeastern coast of the Bay of Bengal. Administratively, it is under Cox’s
Bazar district with an estimated population of 512,678 in 2014. The highway from
Chittagong to Cox’s Bazar passes through Chakaria. The east side of Chakaria is hilly,
while on the west side towards the Bay of Bengal is lowland. A map showing the
location of Chakaria is presented in Figure 1.
ICDDR,B started its activities in Chakaria in 1994. The focus of the activities has
been to facilitate local initiatives for the improvement of health of the villagers in
general and of children, women, and the poor in particular. Thus, the activities of
the project have been participatory with emphasis on empowering the people by
raising awareness about health, inducing positive preventive behaviour through
health education, and providing technical assistance to any health initiatives taken
by the village-based indigenous self-help organizations. Some major initiatives taken
by the villagers included assessment of health needs, defining actions for health,
implementing them, and monitoring their implementation and outputs. Among
the health-related activities, identification of volunteers for health education,
mobilizing local resources for the establishment of village health posts and their
management, introduction of a pre-paid family health card, and establishment of
health cooperatives have been the major ones.