For rural families, agriculture is both source of food and income. ANANDO helps smallholder farmers raise their production and earnings through climate-smart cultivation, homestead gardening, livestock and fisheries, and stronger links to markets. Farmers' Field Schools, village model farms, plant nurseries and community seed banks put better techniques and quality inputs within everyone's reach.
Nearly three decades of work with underserved and climate-vulnerable communities across Bangladesh.
200K+
People reached
75+
Projects delivered
20+
Districts reached
1996
Founded
ANANDO, the Bangla word for "joy", is a registered non-profit, non-governmental development and humanitarian organization founded in 1996 and headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. For nearly three decades, we have served underserved and climate-vulnerable communities across 4 divisions, 20+ districts and 24 upazilas, reaching some 70,000 families directly. Combining microfinance with integrated programs in livelihoods, food security and nutrition, climate resilience, youth skills, WASH, peacebuilding, women's empowerment and humanitarian response, ANANDO empowers poor and marginalized people, especially women, to build self-reliant, dignified lives. Since 2017 it has also served Rohingya refugees and host communities in Cox's Bazar. ANANDO is registered with the NGO Affairs Bureau, the Department of Social Services, the Microcredit Regulatory Authority, BTEB and NSDA, and is externally audited each year. Guided by integrity, accountability and commitment, we believe joy comes from serving humanity.
MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Maniruzzaman Miah
For communities in Bangladesh's hardest-to-reach places - the coastal chars, the hill districts, the refugee camps - ANANDO is the national development organisation that has stayed for thirty years, because it was founded on the belief that joy is not the reward for development; it is the point of it. Unlike organisations that arrive with a project and leave with a report, we build the local institutions, skills and confidence that outlast us. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ When our founders met in 1996, Bangladesh was still being described to the world as a country of catastrophes. They had a different view of the same villages. They saw people who worked ferociously, organised themselves, absorbed shocks the rest of the world could not imagine and who were rarely asked what they wanted. Everything ANANDO has built since rests on that correction. Whether we are restoring livelihoods in Ramu, running a nutrition-smart community in Khagrachari, or maintaining water points in Teknaf, the question we ask first is the same: *what would you build, if you had what you needed?* Our work is to close the distance between that answer and the day it becomes ordinary. To our partners, our donors and the communities who have let us in for thirty years: thank you. There is more to do, and we are still here.
We work with people who give their all to improve their living conditions. We support them with sustainable concepts and strong partnerships.
Explore our programsANANDO remains steadfast in its commitment to serving humanity. Working hand in hand with local communities, we are improving lives across the country and creating lasting impact. We invite you to partner with us to expand this work and reach even more people in need.
By donating to ANANDO, you help people grow. For children in particular, this means the chance of healthy development. For youth, it provides a self-determined future.
Learn more about givingLatest updates
News
ANANDO's three-year climate adaptation initiative has now supported over 50,000 families with resilient livelihoods and early warning systems across six coastal upazilas.
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Case story
After joining ANANDO's homestead gardening program, Rahima transformed a small plot of land into a productive garden that now feeds her family and generates income.
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News
Read the learning we gained by implementing a livelihood restoration project at Cox's Bazar
ANANDO has conducted a project endline study to evaluate the program effectiveness and efficiency
ANANDO and GIZ Bangladesh have signed a partnership agreement to extend safe water and sanitation access to 100,000 people in flood-prone areas of Sylhet division.
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