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Vocational Training
Jobs are very hard to find for the camp dwellers; discrimination diminishes their prospects greatly. For women, chances of finding employment are much less. They earn only a pittance, working as a maid in people’s homes. Doing arduous labor in factories in exchange for a few Takas is not an appealing option for them either.
OBAT’s first sewing program began in November 2011 at Bansbari camp, in Syedpur. Many of the graduates from the Syedpur sewing center and the sewing center at Khulna, are now spreading their wings and looking for ways to sell the clothes they stitch, in local markets. They also stitch uniforms for OBAT’s schools’ students. Every year, around 300 students graduate from all 7 vocational centers.
Microfinance
Since 2006, over 1,600 families have been empowered through OBAT’s micro finance program in Syedpur. This program was mainly designed for women entrepreneurs who were offered micro loans ranging from $100 to $1,000. Extensive training before and during the program was also provided to enable the borrowers to run their businesses and to teach them basic financial literacy. The women in the camps are illiterate and the only way to empower them is through education and micro finance. Instead of perpetuating their cycle of poverty by making them dependent on external assistance, OBAT’s program has made them self-sufficient. Currently, the initial project in Syedpur is self-sustained with a total rolling fund of approximately $500,000.
Lives Changed Through Micro Finance
Sanjeeda Saleem
Sanjeeda enrolled in OBAT’s microfinance program and started a business of embroidering outfits and sarees. Her business began to thrive and she was able to pay off the loan in just one year. Sanjeeda has been able to increase her initial investment almost tenfold and has one hundred women working for her now. She is paying back for her good fortune by being more of a sister rather than just an employer to the women working for her. Sanjeeda has not forgotten where she started. In the quiet of every night, she thinks about how far she has come.
Chanda
Chanda is committed to providing for her children so that their dreams can become realities. The wife of a supportive husband and a loving mother of four, Chanda provides for her family by working as a seamstress. It has been only been one year since she began her training in OBAT’s sewing center. She has been able to buy her own sewing machine through the micro financing project of OBAT in Syedpur. Like any other savvy business woman, Chanda is looking for more opportunities to market the clothing she sews. She wants to grow her business in order to have a regular and dependable source of income. A mother’s work is hard enough, but Chanda has an unrelenting drive that will stop at nothing to provide her children with opportunities that she could not dream of having.
