After the independence of Bangladesh, many national and international voluntary organizations actively participated in rebuilding the country by providing relief, rehabilitation, and development support to marginalized communities. In line with these efforts, initiatives began to focus on organizing people’s groups and empowering them to take collective action.
In 1983, CTW (name of organization) began its journey with the goal of revitalizing existing community groups and expanding membership. Although in its early stages CTW implemented a wide range of activities—such as functional education, agricultural rehabilitation, house repairs, income-generating programs, health and family planning services, tree plantation, microcredit, gender awareness, and legal aid—in various ways, the organization has since streamlined its efforts into two major programs for more effective implementation.
During that period, the socio-economic context of the country was marked by rising unemployment, illiteracy, social prejudices, injustice, and the erosion of traditional social norms. These issues became increasingly visible, particularly affecting landless individuals, daily wage laborers, small traders and professionals, unemployed youth, and women—who suffered disproportionately from different forms of exploitation and injustice.