15th September 2011

A new baby in the creche

Congratulations to Taslima on the birth of Habib. Habib is now three months old and comes to the creche at the Hathay Bunano head office everyday with his mother Taslima. Taslima started working with Hathay Bunano in May 2007 when we first started to work in Notun Bazar and set up the urban production centre there with the financial help of Charles Voegele. Taslima came for training and was determined to learn and to improve her life. As a child she had wanted to be a doctor but she had left school early because her family were poor and couldn’t afford to send her. When she started working with us in 2007 her daughter was 2 years old and came to the creche and Taslima was very clear that since she didn’t have the opportunity to become a doctor then she wanted to educate her daughter and for her to become a doctor.

In 2008 Taslima was promoted and become a salaried supervisor at the Notun Bazar urban production centre where she continued to work well and excel at her work and then in 2010 she was promoted again to the sample section in the main Head Office. She continues to work as sampler and also trainer and is a very highly valued member of our staff.

Her daughter, Habiba, is now 6 years old and attends a local primary school.

When Taslima first joined Hathay Bunano we made a case study of her situation. She was living in a room 8ft x 8ft with her husband, mother-in-law and father-in-law, her husband’s younger sister and her baby Habiba. The room had no facilities and they shared a water pipe outside with 80 other people which was turned on for 2 hours each day. They shared 4 gas burners with the 80 other people in the cluster and 1 toilet. She was living a precarious life in poverty. At that time her husband was a rickshaw puller but his work was infrequent and he was depressed at the situation of his family.

Now Taslima lives with her husband and two children in a room in a brick multi-storey building with its own attached toilet, bathroom and kitchen, with running water. Her husband also now has hope and works as a security guard. Last year they took out a loan to buy furniture for their new home and this has already been repaid and now they are able to save 1000tk (about $14) per month into a local cooperative society. Taslima and her husband happily tell us that ‘We will make our daughter a doctor and our son an engineer. Our savings will help us to fill our dream.’

Taslima tells us that she is happy because her baby is able to come to work with her and this enables her to be able to work knowing that he is well cared for and she is close at hand.