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	Help to children and mothers in Bangladesh
	Save the Children Denmark is working together with UDDIPAN to improve living conditions for mothers and children in rural districts in Bangladesh. In a small dark hut offering shelter from the repressive sun, a woman is writing in a little notebook. In front of her on the floor, a child has carefully climbed onto a scale. Behind the hut is a line of mothers with children. The woman with the notebook is a nutritionist, associated with the local organisation UDDIPAN, which Save the Children Denmark supports. She regularly visits the children and provides the mothers with good advice concerning nutrition and health. While vegetables used to be something to give to the livestock, the women have learned that they are an important part of one's diet, and many now have their own vegetable gardens. Half of all Bangladeshi children under five years of age suffer from chronic malnutrition, one of the reasons why twenty percent of the children die in their first five yars. In addition to poverty, this problem is the result of inadequate knowledge about nutrition. UDDIPAN works in four rural districts in Bangladesh, and information about nutrition is merely one of the many measures that UDDIPAN has taken. The purpose of the project is to make country life more attractive – healthier and with more and better opportunities for women and children alike. Doing so reduces the risk of children being sent to the city to work, get married as a child or become a victim of sexual abuse or trafficking. Instead the children can attend school and enjoy a healthy and more tolerable daily life in the country. More influence for the women
	If women receive greater influence over their own lives, they also have greater influence over the lives of their children. For children are the women's domain. UDDIPAN therefore supports the women, providing them with opportunity to loan money to invest in their own projects, such as buying chickens, after which they can earn money selling eggs. This provides them with increased freedom and greater self-worth. And in the UDDIPAN women's group, diverse everyday issues are discussed and information is provided. The women are thus rendered stronger and made more knowledgable.   Generally speaking, ignorance is a major problem in the country that UDDIPAN is working to alleviate. This involves informing children, parents and authorities about children's rights to be able to motivate them to send their children to school. Trafficking is also a major problem. Parents are lured into delivering their children for a sum of money and promises of employment opportunities for their children. The traffickers now work under more difficult conditions, as the women are aware of the dangers in sending their children away.   "We didn't know what trafficking was before we got the information from UDDIPAN. Now there are posters up warning that if you get a good offer, one must check it out," explains one of the women in the village. The new generations must be better off
	The UDDIPAN projects have made the conditions for the children in the villages where UDDIPAN works far better than they were when their mothers were children.   "I quit school in fifth grade. If I had the choice and knowledge then, I would still be in school. All of my children must go to school, even though it is difficult financially," says Joshima from the village of Daukandi.   Save the Children Denmark has been working with UDDIPAN since 1993. UDDIPAN is merely one of the many Save the Children Denmark partners in Bangladesh. Save the Children Denmark supports local organisations working for the improvement of the conditions for child labourers and children in prostitution in Bangladesh.