Feeding the Hungry, Urban poor & Dalit people

A huge number of hungry people move to and fro in the town of Mymensingh, in fact, all over Bangladesh in search of food to meet their hunger. Sometimes they get food, but sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, they get some wasted food from the houses, only a plate of rice, fresh or rotten, may help meeting their hunger but neither the hunger of mind nor the nutrition demand (hidden hunger).

The Harguzipar village was chosen for the project because there was no NGO working directly in this village and almost 70% of the approximately 300 households were poor or extremely poor.

Since 2006, in Sankipara, Mymensingh where Mati’s head office is located, MATI has been feeding around 100 people with a free lunch with healthy & rich diet every Thursday of a week. Mainly mothers with children and old people come from the nearby Dalit community and the street baggers also use to come to take the lunch. While in the first weeks there were 30-40 people, we now regularly count more than one hundred guests. An old woman once told us “Lunch at Mati’s office is like a weekly celebration for me and I keep waiting throughout the week for this day to come”.

All the MATI’s head office staff and guests take lunch together in a festive mood. The meal together is a good opportunity to stay in contact with the people in front of our door and to meet them at eye level or plate level.