13th May 2011
Aklima Akter – Dhaka Notun Bazar
Aklima is 24 years old. She was married at 18 because her father was very poor and couldn’t afford to support his big family. Her husband is a day labourer. He works building the big new concrete buildings in the ever expanding city of Dhaka, but some days there is work and some days there is no work. Each morning he stands with many other day labourers on the busy airport road hoping that a truck will stop and offer him a day’s work.
Aklima has been working with Hathay Bunano for 3 years now and can see her life improving. She has one daughter who is 5 years old and is happy that when she is 6, the Community Liaison Officer at Hathay Bunano will help her to get her daughter into one of the local schools.
Currently she is pregnant with her second child and is happy that the work with Hathay Bunano is flexible and will enable her to take time off for the birth of the baby and then start to work again when she is ready and bring her baby to the creche, where she will be close to the baby all day and be able to feed her on demand.
She hopes that when her daughter grows up she will become a doctor and will help the poor in Bangladesh.