6th July 2011

Co-operation with Intercooperation

We are delighted to be setting up three new training and production centres in Sirajganj with joint funding from Intercooperation. Intercooperation is a Swiss not for profit organisation engaged in development and working all over South Asia. Sirajganj is in the centre of Bangladesh lying just west of the Brahmaputra river. We already have three centres in Sirajganj with about 300 women working there, and it’s where most of our ever popular octopus rattles are made so we’re delighted to be expanding there in Kalihoripur and Soydabad unions.

Training of women started in three new centres on 16th June 2011 and these first batches are now almost at completion and will be starting production work on Pebble products later this month. Initally we will train 150 women in these new centres and then over time we hope to see them grow further.

The areas where the new centres are located are extremely poor where the majority of people have no land for cultivation and sell their labour for very low rates on a daily basis. There was lots of interest in the new Hathay Bunano centres in these villages with many women already having heard about Hathay Bunano from the existing centres that we have in Sirajganj. I’ve posted pictures below of the inauguration ceremony for the project and also of the three villages. We hope to make a difference to the lives of the people in these areas and to make lots of wonderful Pebble products in the process.

Samantha