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Hasina,
the Hardy Woman
Twelve years ago Hasina
got married with Mohammad Hossain. Their financial condition was very
adverse. There was no satisfactory source of income. Her husband worked in a
shoe factory. He had no business of his own. They had only a shanty
tin-roofed room. The worn out tiny house symbolized their miserable life in
poverty. Days passed with utter scarcity of food. Years have gone by without
any sign of happiness during the phase.
Suddenly, in 1998,
Hasina came into contact with a BEES group in her locality in Bhoirab thana
under Brahmanbaria district. She was inspired seeing the group and its
entire activities. The impact of the group exercise and the unity among the
group members impressed her a lot. She sat for a discussion with her
neighbors, and formed a group. Forming the group, they named it
‘Jagannathpur Mahila Samiti’. Henceforth, by receiving facilities from BEES
she is trying to uplift her life status.
Hasina continued her
study upto class eight while her husband can sign only. Hasina is an
intelligent woman, and as she has an educational background, she took the
leading role in the group. She has been carrying on her membership of the
group for the last four years and took loans from the organization for four
times. She helped her husband make a shoe factory for himself and bought
sewing machines for her own with the credits that BEES provided.
At first she took Tk.
3,000 and gave this credit money to her husband as a support to establish
his shoe factory. Receiving her first loan she deposited Tk. 10 per week to
the group as savings. Next year she received Tk. 5,000 as credit from BEES.
Afterwards, for the third time, she got Tk. 7,000 as loan from BEES. With
this loan money and from the profit of her husband’s business she bought two
sewing machines and a motor. And then she received Tk. 9,000 as her fourth
loan this year. Her husband took some money from this loan and added it to
his own profit of his business to purchase a machine for his shoe factory
with Tk. 8,000. She has been depositing Tk. 25 per week to the group as
savings from just after receiving her second loan. Now she has a total
savings of Tk. 4,000 in the group.
Both Hasina and her
husband go to the market to sell the produced goods. They sell their goods
in the markets of Sylhet, Narsingdi and Brahmanbaria districts. Hasina’s
husband gives value to her opinion while discussing about their business
policy. She gives advice to her husband to apply the technique of bargaining
to purchase goods at a lower cost and to sell at a higher price. She has
learnt about the economics of scale and in the light of this knowledge she
gives advice to her husband. Hence he has the initiative to reduce expenses.
He is used to buy goods at a cheap rate comparing the rates of different
stores and sometimes of different markets too. They buy more goods at a time
to get facilities of discount, which they could not do earlier due to less
capital.
Earlier Hasina’s
husband had no shoe-factory of his own. He had to work for other’s factory.
Now he is being able to have stability of his personal shoe business
standing on his own feet. Hasina helps her husband in the factory. Both of
them work together in the factory. Moreover, after achieving solvency, they
employed five workers for their factory creating employment generation.
Hasina has become
economically valuable for the family. She, being a member of BEES, herself
has become an earning member. She is earning from her tailoring business and
thus trying to enrich the moneyline of the family. She is now very conscious
for earning solvency for the upliftment of her family. She is committed to
properly bring their children up. She has a girl and a boy. The girl is
eight. She is reading in class one. Earlier for poverty Hasina could not
send her girl to any school at the proper age. But now she is able to bear
the expenses of her child’s education. Her boy is at the age of
three-and-a-half year. She is thinking of sending this child to a school
next year.
After her becoming a
member of BEES, they enjoy more solvent life. Earlier their monthly income
was Tk. 3,000 only, which only the breadwinner, her husband, earned from his
working in shoe-factory of other person. But they had to spend Tk. 4,175. So
they had nothing but to borrow from relatives or neighbors or any other
moneylenders. This was an extra burden for them. But BEES helped them raise
their income upto Tk. 8,000, made Hasina and her husband self-dependent and
made them free from the moneylenders. As an impact of their increased
income, their monthly expenditure has also increased dramatically. In the
former period, they spent Tk. 4,175 per month, while now they can spend Tk.
7,375 in a month.
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Hardships are withering away gradually. Now they have the
ability to have balanced diet. Protein has become common in their daily food
habit. They eat meat three days a week, fish four days, milk and egg daily.
From the profit of their business during the period of last four years,
after being associated to the BEES group, they have enlarged their cottage;
electrified the house; bought a TV, a radio, an almirah, a showcase, a bed
and a fan. Becoming a member of BEES, Hasina bought a tube-well from the
profit of her business and they are using it for all purposes.
The credit from BEES, their hard working, and sound income
have paved the way for a contented life in the family.
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