History of SHAPLA NEER

SHAPLA NEER has been working as a voluntary non-governmental organization for 30 years.

In the spring of 1972, 50 members of Japanese youth volunteers, who were the delegation for agricultural rehabilitation program in Bangladesh, were dispatched to the country which had been independent from Pakistan the previous year.

The young Japanese volunteers had to face the reality of assistance to Bangladesh. Only the rich were able to enjoy their life given by the aid, while the poor - who accounted for the most part of the nation - were beyond the reach of it. However, at the same time, the delegations were attracted a lot by the beauties of the nature and warm-hearted people in that country.

They returned to Japan after 4 months activity in Bangladesh. The valuable experience in the country made them consider the ways really helpful to all the Bangladeshis. As a result, they founded "Help Bangladesh Committee (HBC)" to continue their activities. HBC is the former organization of SHAPLA NEER.

After collecting contributions on the street for some time in Japan, HBC established a local office in Dhaka in July, 1974. They named the office "SHAPLA NEER"(house of water lily). They set the central stage for their volunteer activities at Poyla village in Manikganj. District. And several Japanese lived and started projects for the rural community. Their main role in the village was to promote group activities for local women and produce handicrafts. They also organized evening classes for adults and open-air classes for children.

However there was a sad incident that two employees assigned to the Poyla office were assaulted by about 10 robbers and seriously injured. The HBC members had to reconsider how their assistance should be in the country.

They thought that it was better for them to discontinue the activities at Poyla.  In 1980, after having a long discussion on this matter, they decided to start working in the country again with taking other measures. The new activity came to be the current "Samity" strategy.  This was to cooperate with local groups which were formed by poor villagers to improve their living jointly. In 1982, they started adult literacy program where villagers who were mostly illiterate had chance to learn how to read and write.  It became one of HBC's core activities there. Since then they had evolved various programs for supporting samity members and families to improve their life in many aspects.

In 1983, HBC changed its name into "SHAPLA NEER = Citizens' Committee in Japan for overseas Support".

Now, SHAPLA NEER has directly cooperated with 12,000 households in Bangladesh and over 30,000 people graduated from its literacy class.  We have been playing an important role in that country as a middle-scale NGO supported by as many as 80 professional staffs.

In 1995, SHAPLA NEER started the projects in Nepal chosen as a new country for our support. SHAPLA NEER and the local NGOs work together as a partner toward the farmers in the eastern hilly areas, the aborigines in the western plain areas and the poor in the capital Kathmandu respectively, with the cooperation of three local NGOs.