Thirty-four years Anowara Begum belonged to a typical middle- class rural family living at Khamarboksa village. Despite having little money, however, the family was somehow passing the days. Anowara was happy with her family. The whole family completely devastated after the sudden demise of her husband as he was the lone earner of the family. “Sudden losing of my husband put my whole family in a precarious condition. I did not know what to do and how I would feed my three young kids”- Anowara narrated her situation. Finding no other alternatives, she became a day-laborer to meet the needs of the family. However, her earning was not enough to support her family.
Anowara got selected as a right-holder of the ALO Plus project of Islamic Relief. Although she had a knack for the skill of tailoring she still needed some capital to make something of it. Observing her interest, she was selected as a participant to receive TVET (Technical & Vocational Education Training) from the project and she received training on tailoring & dress making from UCEP, a renowned TVET-providing institution. She also received cash grant for starting IGA. After receiving training, she intended to start her own tailoring and dress making business. To make her plan successful, she purchased two second-hand sewing machines fro
m her neighbors immediately after the completion of her training along with different types of clothes to make dresses. Initially she faced a lot of challenges. She was struggling to secure sewing orders from the locality as there were other competitors. She said, “It was difficult to get order because I was new in the field. Customers didn’t trust me whether I would perfectly make their dress or deviate the shape and size”. Under these circumstances, she started discussing the issue with others. “I talked with neighbors, group members and the respective IR supervisor to understand what to do. Some of them advised me to make single use shopping bag and sell those in the local market. I thought of the proposition and started to get information in regards to collecting raw materials and selling points of single use bag. Having all the necessary information and technical guidance from the project team, I decided to making single use shopping bag. Now I am a bag maker. I sell my products to 4 shops at Burirhat market and earn a handsome amount of money regularly”, she described. Anowara has also bought a cow and a goat. She nurtures those cattle in a good way. She has an intention to start a small livestock farm to diversify her earnings.
Anowara shared her success in Soto Rupai SHG group in the weekly meeting. “Currently, I am earning around BDT 5000 in every month. This is not a huge income but it brings hope to a widow that I can take the lead of my family and can fulfil the requirements of children. By the grace of Almighty my children do not starve any more. As a mother I am happy to provide meals to my children,” she concluded.