Photo: Collected
Photo: Collected
Mariam Akter Riya’s dream is to stand by her family in its financial hardship while continuing her studies. She is studying Alim at a local madrasa in Gouripur. Her father is a farmer and her mother a homemaker. Where it is difficult even to meet household expenses with the limited income from farming, Riya took the initiative to learn sewing out of a desire to support her family by earning alongside her studies.
After three months of training, a new opportunity on the way to fulfilling that dream has come into her hands. At the initiative of Bashundhara Shuvosangho, Riya has been given a sewing machine on behalf of Bashundhara Group. This has created an opportunity for her to earn by doing sewing work at home alongside her studies. Riya has expressed the hope that she will be able to build her own future as well as share the family’s responsibilities.
Like Riya, this sewing machine has brought a message of new hope to the life of Kakoli Rani Das too. She has lost both her parents. In a family of five siblings, all but one are unemployed. So for Kakoli, who has been battling want and hardship for a long time, the opportunity to earn by working from home is extremely important. Through the sewing machine given by Bashundhara Group, she will be able to play at least some part in meeting her own and her family’s needs.
Though the life stories of Mariam and Kakoli are different, their expectation is the same: not to surrender to poverty, and to change the future by using their own labour and skills. The sewing machines they received after three months of training have opened a new door on the way to realising that dream.
Recently, sewing machines and a sapling each were handed over to 20 underprivileged women who are pressing ahead in life’s struggle at the Gouripur Press Club auditorium. Shankar Ghosh Pilu presided over the event, which was moderated by Selim Al Raj. Imdadul Haq Milan, acclaimed fiction writer, adviser to Bashundhara Group and head of Shuvosangho, was present as the chief guest.
Also present at the event were Additional Superintendent of Police (Gouripur Circle) Debashish Karmakar, Gouripur Mohila Degree College Principal Dr Md Harunur Rashid, Gouripur Police Station Officer-in-Charge Habibur Rahman, municipal BNP convener Ali Akbar Anis, Gouripur Press Club President Beg Faruk Ahmed, General Secretary Rakibul Islam, former president Kazi Abdullah Al Aman, former convener Rois Uddin, Nandail additional agriculture officer Kamrul Hasan Kamu and Gouripur Lekhak Sangha General Secretary Palash Azhar, among many others.
Gouripur Police Station Officer-in-Charge Habibur Rahman said this initiative of handing sewing machines to helpless and underprivileged women is timely. A sewing machine can become a tool of self-reliance for a woman. Through it they will get the opportunity to earn from home and will be able to contribute to improving the family’s financial condition. Such initiatives to make women self-reliant will also play an important role in the overall development of society.
Additional Superintendent of Police Debashish Karmakar said the initiative of handing sewing machines to underprivileged women is noble and praiseworthy. A sewing machine is not merely a machine; it creates an opportunity for a woman to stand on her own feet and to be by her family’s side. The initiative has become more meaningful as the machines were handed to them after training.
Chief guest Imdadul Haq Milan said that to make women from poor families self-reliant, not only are sewing machines being given, but through this an opportunity is also being created for them to stand on their own feet. If she gets the opportunity for training and employment, a woman can earn for her own family and can likewise play an important role in the development of society and the country. Bashundhara Shuvosangho teaches standing by people and humanity.
So for the 20 women who received machines after sewing training, this initiative is not merely a matter of receiving a gift; rather, it is the beginning of a new possibility of earning by using their skills and building their future themselves.
