Tales of two women

This week The Daily Star did a feature article on two Bangladeshi women who were victims of Cyclone Sidr in November, 2007 and have since rebuilt their lives and livelihoods with support from BRAC. Excerpts of one of the women's stories is below:

DOLEYA (40) of Ghatak Char Village was married at 16. Not surprising, since early marriage in rural areas is a regular phenomenon. Doleya's husband is an agricultural labourer -- owning only 2 decimals of homestead land. Despite his sincere devotion, he could do little to feed a family of seven due to his prolonged illness.

Out of their five children, only one is working in a factory to earn a meager monthly income of Tk.1,300. Two of the children go to schools and two are yet to step into school. They need more than 3kgs of rice per day, which means about Tk.70-75 per day is spent for rice only.

Cyclone Sidr, that swept the southern districts of Bangladesh in 2007, hit Doleya's household very hard. The house was severely damaged and the only non-land assets that they had -- two goats -- were also lost.

...

Meantime, in the aftermath of the cyclone, a Brac survey identified Doleya as a deserving candidate for aid. She got two goats from Brac under EU grant. Now she has few more in stock. There has, thus, been an increase in her endowments of assets within a couple of months.

The lady now plans to sell these goats in a very short time and wishes to buy a cow. The cow would provide milk to generate more income and the calves would form capital stock.

Click here to read the full story.