Fulera Akter is a lady of fighting spirit, lives in Ramnagar village of Sariakandi upazila under Bogra district of Bangladesh. Her husband Mr. Rofikul Islam (30) is a cycle van puller. Fulera, now at her 24, is mother of two children. Her son, Md. Babu (12) studies in class six and daughter Ontora is only 5 years old. Fulera started fighting against poverty at very early age aiming at solvency. At present, Fulera is known to everyone of Ramnagar village as she met the crisis of cattle feed in the village.
Fulera Akter is the 1st daughter of Md. Shamsul Islam amongst her two sisters and one brother. Her father was a poor farmer and was unable to maintain such big family. As they were living from hand to mouth, it was difficult for them to carry the family on with such poor condition. She couldn't continue her study after class three because of extreme poverty. She was a victim of child marriage at the age of 11 with a boy of 17. The distress began. While she was supposed to pass life with toys and games, at that time she was burdened with a poverty-stricken family. The situation gets worse when she gave birth of a child at the age of 12. At that period of time her day labor husband was only earning member of the family and had a daily earning of tk. 80 which is equivalent to $1.1. It was beyond their dreams to have three times meal for everyone with that little amount of money earned by her husband. Poverty started to dominate their family, they had nothing but crisis.
Strengthening the Dairy Value Chain (SDVC) project of CARE Bangladesh started to work Fulera's village Ramnagar from the middle of 2008. The project has implemented in 9 districts of North and Northwest of Bangladesh for a period of 4 years (2007-2011). The vision of success of the project is- targeted landless and smallholding households in North and Northwest Bangladesh have more sustainable livelihoods through incorporation into a strengthened milk value chain. The core objective is to eliminate existing bottlenecks and establish a value chain where all stakeholders (e.g. from dairy producer, collector, processor to final consumer and people who are directly and indirectly related to the chain like cattle feed seller, medicine seller and other service providers) will be benefited. Women empowerment in all level of the chain is another important objective of the project. The project has developed groups with milk producers in village Ramnagar. Those milk producer groups conduct meeting in each week to discuss their on going problems on milk production, marketing and ensuring other services. From the discussing in the group they found that the availability of cattle feed in Ramnagar village is the major problem for milk producers as cattle feed is an obligatory part for increasing production. The local market is around two and half kilometer away from the village. So the group members take a decision to select someone in the village as a supplier and seller of cattle feed. Fulera Akter heard that and found an idea of income. She communicated with group leaders and showed interest to be a provider of cattle feed in the community. By the consent of milk producer group members Fulera Akter has been selected as a feed sellers for the community.
With the help of SDVC project Fulera contacts with different cattle feed processing companies to get information on available and appropriate cattle feed. At the same time SDVC project helps her to get a loan of tk. 6000/- (taka six thousand) which is equivalent to $85 from a local NGO. She bought feed by that money and starts to sell the same from her home. Day by day, demand for feed in the village increases. So, Fulera launched a shop at the entrance of Ramnagar village and starts her business formally. At the same time she began to sell vegetables along side with cattle feed due to the consumer demand. Fulera's husband helps her in shop maintaining, purchasing and transporting products for the shop.
Now Fulera Akter has an average daily income of tk. 200 which is equivalent to $2.8, by which she can afford three times meal for her family and education expenditure of her children. She also has monthly savings. Fulera expressed, "Thanks to CARE SDVC project, dairy producer groups and others who opened my eyes and supported me to bring me to this stage of success".
Vulnerable and Helpless Fulera Akter is now established in the society with a single balancing scale in her shop. With this balancing scale she has conquered all obstacles of the so-called society and regained confidence. Poverty can no more hindrance her way to success. Like Fulera there are lots of women who have great potentials to overcome their distress by breaking the cycle of poverty and gender inequality and make their life better.
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tangail comedy_MARUF RAHMAN MASUDby 017168366362,435 views
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