The Chandpur Total Community Development Centres (TCDC) project commenced in 2008 based from the town of Chandpur in Bangladesh. It was a broad programme for village development, built around village savings groups for the poorest families of the village, and included preschool facilities and a tutorial programme for their children. New Zealand Aid Programme funding for the project finished in 2015, and so the programme has been downsized to focus primarily on continued support for children’s education.

Coffee is an important cash crop in Papua New Guinea, involving about a third of the population in its production. For many of the Highlands districts it is the major income earner of the local economy. However in many areas there are issues in production and marketing that reduce the profitability for the farmers, with the result that they are not getting a good return for their work. This project will improve the returns for coffee growers in the Baiyer Valley.

Freeset has been working to free women trafficked into in the Sonagacchi red-light district of Kolkata for 17 years. They have found that the Murshidabad district of West Bengal is a particular source area for women being trafficked. The reason for this is poverty, with over 60% living below the Indian poverty line. Poverty provides the opportunity for traffickers, who promise women good jobs in the city, but when they get to the city the women are forced into prostitution. The project establishes business units in the district, providing employment opportunities for at-risk women.