Nurjahan – A Successful Housewife

Nurjahan Begum a 50-year-old housewife, lives in Taluknagor village of Daulatpur Upazila in Manikganj district. She got married when she was only 16 years old. Her husband’s name is Samsuddin who is a day laborer by profession.

Nurjahan and her family had been confronting with river erosion that took away almost everything from their life. They had to shift their house a couple more times due to the river erosion. River erosion is a very common scenario in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. Hundreds of thousands of people are struggling with this natural calamity for years.

Since Samsuddin was working as a day laborer, it was very difficult for him to maintain a family comprised of four people. However, he lost everything in the womb of the deadly Padma river. Thus, he decided to go to Dhaka for a better living and Nurjahan started a poultry farm on a small scale.

In 2019, Community Empowerment Project (CEP) – Daulatpur, Maninkganj of ADRA in Bangladesh started its activities in Nurjahan’s village. She observed and motivated by the intervention of ADRA. Afterward, she joined a Mohila Unnayan Dol (Women Development Group) in their village. She started to attend weekly meetings regularly and also started to deposit in her savings accordingly.

Nurjahan was illiterate and did not know how to write her name. She learned how to read and write with the help of an adult literacy session of CEP. In the meantime, CEP staff provided her various counseling to engage her with Income Generating Activities (IGA) especially on homestead gardening and produce vermin compost.

CEP project staff provided some vegetable seeds to Nurjahan and advised her to cultivate them in her fellow land. After a few months, she started bean cultivation and sold it in the local market. She got a satisfactory price (BDT 80/kg) because that was an early variety in the season.

Later, Nurjahan took a mortgage of 30 decimals of land by taking a loan from her savings. She started to produce vegetables on a large scale. Now, she is getting pleasing outcomes from her land and she can afford all the expenses of her family.

Nurjahan and Samsuddin are very much inclined to know modern agrarian technologies. They have understood that nothing is impossible but need to do hard work. They are very happy and grateful to CEP of ADRA Bangladesh for their precious counseling, advice, and assistance for the betterment of their family.