PEP Model

Integrated Development Model:

The integrated development model is people focused and not program driven. Each family’s needs are different, their talents diverse and their capabilities individual. A permanent uplift out of poverty is a long process. A one meal a day family must first have its basic needs of shelter, food, and access to pure drinking water and sanitary latrines met before it’s possible to begin that journey. Our model of poverty eradication offers an individual and holistic approach that allows each family to choose an economic endeavor to pursue.

Most of the many programs available offer skills training to insure success, micro finance is available to start economic development, an introduction to primary education for their children, basic healthcare, and so much more. Working on an individual family plan that they have created with the help a social worker, they are monitored for success on a bi-weekly basis by a field social worker who lives and works in their village, or nearby. Development plans include being able to provide adequate housing, food, basic healthcare, access to pure drinking water and sanitary latrines, education for their children, clothing appropriate to the climate, steady work and the skills necessary to stay employed, savings and assets that allow financial stability and independence. These goals are met by most partner families within a ten year cycle.

The model promotes democracy in its relationship to the poor by treating everyone equally. This especially includes respecting the rights of women and involving them to the extent they want, and working with local people and institutions in a similar foundational commitment for the development process. Every person’s dignity and all other basic social, political, religious and cultural rights must be fostered for the long term success of the development process. To ensure that the focus always remains on those most in need, each family is assessed every three years to determine their progress. When they reach the criteria for independence they are graduated out of the program and helped to pursue new goals for continued advancement with other NGO’s if they choose.

PEP is people-focused, rather than program-focused. PEP’s development partners are the hard-core poor, who are mainly the landless poor, women, children of the poor, the homeless, the unemployed, marginal and small farmers and traditional artisans.
Poverty eradication is PEP’s central thrust. Activities and programs are tailored to needs of the people; they are revised and new activities introduced as people’s needs require.
PEP’s development strategy is holistic in nature. PEP interventions are of two major types: Social Service Activities and Economic Empowerment Activities
PEP takes direct social action by: securing housing for the poorest of the poor; providing sources of drinking water and equipment for sanitation; engaging in women’s development and job training; operating schools for primary education; supplying healthcare and nutrition education; and providing disaster management and flood relief when needed.
PEP provides economic empowerment by: establishing small rural industries; engaging in reforestation, sericulture, tissue culture, horticulture, agriculture and irrigation programs; creating resettlement projects for the landless and homeless; developing fishery cooperatives and livestock and poultry enterprises; providing micro-credit and savings opportunities; supporting environmental activities; and developing rural infrastructure projects.
To ensure that the focus always remains on those most in need, each family is assessed every three years to determine their progress. When they reach the criteria for independence they are graduated out of the program and helped to pursue new goals for continued advancement with other NGO’s if they choose.
PEP currently serves 72,758 partner families, approximately 363,790 people, in 1,694 villages in ten work areas in Bangladesh.