Start of a new life

Maya is one of the common deprived women from the Southern part of Bangladesh. She is a 34 years old divorcee with one daughter who attends school. At one point she had the opportunity to work in the Ready Made Garments (RMG) sector. However, she could not get sufficient money to live in Dhaka and to maintain her family. As a result, she came back to her village with her only child and took shelter in her father’s house. She lives in a kitchen room which is made of bamboo and it is not safe, because fire can take place at any time. She lives hand to mouth and works hard in others’ fields, forced to beg for buying food, which greatly pains her. In her village there are not enough opportunities to sustain a basic standard life. She could not sustain the school fees for her child when meeting daily needs was a struggle. This caused her a very high level of anxiety on a daily basis. One day a local NGO, DALIT, visited her home and listened to her painful life story from both her sister and herself. They shared with her the opportunity to join the Jukta Hoe Mukta (United We Stand) project. She was briefed on the project’s purpose and activities as trainee & the job facilities. After sharing with her family, the NGO staff offered her to attend the final selection meeting bringing with her the necessary documents. After a week she attended a gathering for interview with her sister-guardian. Going there she became convinced on the project’s activities and became increasingly more determined to go to Dhaka for receiving a training on RMG skills to become a sewing operator. She was selected and invited to prepare herself for training. She is now pleased to be in as after her training she will earn more than 6,000 BDT per month. She now intends to bring her daughter with her in Dhaka so they can be together again. Maya now dreams of living a prosperous life and she feels relieved from the previous anxiety.