Income Generating Activity (IGA) Helps to Alleviate Poverty in Gouripur

Many women in the rural areas of Bangladesh are struggling to obtain financial stability. Since most of the women in the rural areas are illiterate, they can’t obtain suitable opportunities to support their families financially. Rupali Begum is one of them.

Rupali is a very creative and enthusiastic woman. She is a member of Damgoan Mohila Unnayan Shomity of Community Empowerment Project (CEP) – Gouripur, Mymensingh. She has two daughters and one son. Her husband Hannan Miya doesn’t do any work for living as he is very lazy.

Though Rupali has 15 decimals of cultivable lands, she can’t utilize her lands due to the laziness of her husband. He is reluctant to get involved in cultivation. Thus, they are always suffering from financial crises.

Due to her husband's lethargy, she had to live a miserable life. Rupali was desperate to get rid of this situation. That’s why she was trying to figure out a way of earning money and contributing to her family to lead a normal life.

“I came to know about ADRA Bangladesh in 2019 from one of my neighbors. At that time, ADRA started its Community Empowerment Project (CEP) in our area. I went to visit ADRA’s office to know more about their activities. I found it interesting and I enrolled in Damgoan Mohila Unnayan Shomity,” Rupali was describing how she discovered ADRA.

According to the project plan, every year CEP arranges Need-Based Income Generating Activity (IGA) training. In 2020, CEP arranged tailoring training for its women beneficiaries. Rupali was selected as a trainee for tailoring training. She successfully completed one month of training. After completing the training, she took a loan of BDT 5,000.00 from her Shomity and purchased a sewing machine.

“I started dressmaking and took it as my profession. I was getting orders from my neighbors but the flow of orders was too low. I was thinking to do something better and earn sufficient money to afford my family. I came to know that there is a great demand for shopping bags in the local grocery market. Later, I visited one of the grocers and told them that I can prepare bags for them. They gave me a tiny work order and I delivered the bags on time. They were pleased with my work and efficiency. Gradually, I was getting big orders from them and delivering the bags on time. Since then I never had to look back! Now, I’m earning BDT 8,000.00 to 10,000.00 per month which is sufficient for my family to lead a normal life,” Rupali was sharing how she had achieved financial emancipation.