| Background of CWFD |
Concerned Women for Family Development (CWFD), originally named Concerned Women for Family Planning (CWFP), is a non-profit, voluntary organization run by the women of Bangladesh for the women of Bangladesh. The organization started its voluntary activities in 1974, registered with the Directorate of Social Welfare in 1975, and a formal small-scale family planning service delivery program started in January 1976. It was registered with NGO Affairs Bureau in 1981.
CWFD is a woman-led organization with a membership of 21 women from different strata of life. Organizational policy is set, and major decisions are made by the Governing Body (GB), elected every two years from among the general members. The Executive Director appointed by the GB manages all the projects and organizational activities through managers of different projects and their staff.
The project activities started with only 5 female staff to cover an area of Dhaka City with 50,000 people. Family planning information was disseminated through face-to-face communication, a woman-to-woman approach, and non-clinical services were provided at the doorstep.
Initially, CWFP had a single-focus program of family planning. Over time, the organization realized that mere improvement of health status through family planning would not sustain a significant change in women’s life in Bangladesh. Accordingly, CWFD expanded the project activities to cover a larger population in Dhaka and other areas of Bangladesh and initiated new programs for women, men, children, and adolescents encompassing primary health care, life skill development, creating economic opportunity, and empowering women against social injustice, nutrition education, health product marketing, investigate the issues of the large adolescent population, arrange family life education, gender training and knowledge on sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), water sanitation. For more information, please visit our website www.cwfd.org. |
