'Hello' from under a mosquito net in Saidpur, Bangladesh
'Hello' from under a mosquito net in a rather dirty little hotel room. I've never slept on such holey sheets, but at least the bed is clean!
I've forgotten my alarm clock, but I shouldn't have worried, as at 5:30 am I woke to chanting from the mosque. On my first visit to Bangladesh fifteen years ago, I remember being freaked out by it, but now I love the way it unfolds into the peace of dawn and birdsong.
I'm here with the design and producer support team from Japan and UK. We come every 6 months. A team of seven of us meet with over forty producer groups, run quality workshops in the villages and in Dhaka, and check production samples. My job is to coordinate the activities, facilitate the workshops and also network with local NGOs and trade union partners to promote Fair Trade, help develop a local culture of corporate social responsibility, and build initiatives on sustainability.
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Saidpur is the home of Action Bag, one of People Tree's key partners. Action Bag was set up after the war of independence with Pakistan in 1971. Muslim refugees caught up in the violence at the time of in Indian Independence in 1947 had flooded into Bangladesh having had to leave everything they had behind. Twenty-five years later, when Bangladesh gained its independence from Pakistan, the Urdu-speaking Bihari refugees, found themselves identified with the Urdu-speaking Pakistani elite and many were displaced for a second time to Saidpur.
Ghashuddin, Action Bag's Manager, was a boy at that time, his mother had died when he was just eight and his father, who was already of poor health, found the stress of the move too much and died shortly after arriving here. This was the time of widespread starvation in Bangladesh. (Suraiya, a designer friend of mine, remembers she walked over dead corpses and dying people to get to their relations house in search of food.)
Now sixteen years old, Ghashuddin had to find a way to feed is his younger brother and sister. He found a job distributing food as part of a famine relief programme for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). “It was so the lucky break I needed. I could earn enough to look after my family and I had the satisfaction of feeding two thousand children every day with a corn cereal and milk powder.”
MCC realised they needed a long term solution to poverty in Bangladesh and create real jobs in the area. So they set up Action Bag, training fifty women so that they could earn a living, and break away from their dependence on aid. Ghashuddin was asked to run it. The first orders came from GEPA, a German Fair Trade organization. These were the world's first environmentally friendly bags! Once it was financially self sufficient, like other MCC enterprises, Action Bag was given its independence from MCC.
People Tree started working with Action Bag ten years ago and helped to give advice on product development. The partnership has also pioneered initiatives using hand woven fabrics and other environmentally friendly fabrics.
Josna
This morning I'm going for breakfast at the home of one of the producers. Josna, now in her forties, has been working at Action Bag for ten years. Abandoned by her husband, she has rebuilt her life with amazing courage and determination. She has even had to battling through the courts, when people wanted to swindle the land her house stands on.
'Action Bag gave me advice and loans of 1,500 taka for this. Without their help I would have lost all I have.'
When I ask her about the difference Fair Trade makes, her smile widens.
'I could earn only 50% of what I earn at Action Bag and I would have to get a job as a housemaid. There is no other work in this area. I am treated with great respect and work at home which suits me.'
She has helped put her nieces through school and says being able to treat them to things now and again gives her the greatest happiness. In addition, she has rebuilt the roof on her house using from her share of the Action Bag profits - which are equal to five months' salary!!
The breakfast she has made is delicious: potato curry and roti. I could eat breakfast like this all day!