About RDRS

RDRS was established as the Bangladesh field programme of the Geneva-based Lutheran World Federation/Department for World Service (LWF/DWS) in February 1972 to provide relief, rehabilitation, and development assistance to the war-affected people in northwest Bangladesh. In 1997, RDRS was localised and registered under the Trust Act as a national NGO in Bangladesh. The organisation is registered with NGO Affairs Bureau in Bangladesh and Microcredit Regulatory Authority, and is governed by a Board of Trustees.

Vision

A just and peaceful society where citizens live in dignity, free from poverty, distress, and ignorance in a sustainable environment.

Mission

RDRS works with disadvantaged and marginalized communities and their organizations to empower them, make them resilient, and ensure sustainable improvements in their lives with dignity.

Core Values

RDRS’s core values are:

• Compassion: We essentially feel and are motivated to relieve the suffering of our beneficiaries, and thus design and implement actions accordingly, in all our actions to our disadvantaged and marginalized beneficiaries, particularly the women, youth and minorities.
• Commitment: We promise to design and implement our program actions equitably, professionally and efficiently
• Innovation: We develop and implement innovative approaches and technology, relevant to local context and culture, to apply in boosting the people’s livelihoods and coping methods
• Adaptability: We continuously learn and adapt our approaches and intervention as relevant to the emerging trends and needs to ensure our program objectives and organization’s mission are effectively achieved.
• Accountability: Core to our integrity, we ensure transparent operations and feedback mechanisms, and are answerable for all our actions to the people we seek to serve, our donors and society 

Programme

RDRS strategy is operationalised through five thematic focuses to achieve its overall programme goal. The five thematic focuses are:

• Skills, Employment and Entrepreneurship
• Social Empowerment
• Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change
• Microfinance
• Emergency and Humanitarian Response