wfn.org | LWI 2009-010 FEATURE: "The First Loan of My Life"

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FEATURE: "The First Loan of My Life"

Improving Livelihoods among Marginalized Bangladeshis

SAIDPUR, Bangladesh/GENEVA, 23 February 2009 (LWI) - "Please
make me a member, give me a loan. I will pay it back at any
cost," says Salma Begum, recalling her plea eight years ago to
join a micro-credit group in her village. And, she received "the
first loan of my life" - 2,000 taka (around USD 29.00) which she
used to buy dried fish and other goods that her husband Tafsir
Ali sold locally. Gradually, he managed to invest in a small
shop, while Salma, with careful management of their income,
bought livestock to start her own business. 

She borrowed a further 8,000 taka (USD 116.00), with which she
bought a rickshaw that she hired out, bringing in additional
income. With time, she could take more loans, which saw her
expand her family farm to include several pigeons, ducks,
chickens, six goats and two cows. No matter how meager the
profits, Salma says she has made it a rule to always save
something from each project. 

She explains confidently the remarkable progress she has made
since joining the micro-credit group, one of many in the Saidpur
area in Bangladesh's northwestern district of Nilphamari. "Just
from selling pigeons, I earn 1,500 taka (USD 22.00) per month
which I deposit in the bank for loan repayments. The money from
our small shop caters for household expenses and our savings."
She bought 90 decimals (0.36 hectares) of land which provides the
family with "enough rice to eat, unless there’s calamity, like
floods," she adds. LWF Bangladesh Program
Industrious, ambitious and respected in her village, Salma is
also a committee member of a local federation supported by one of
Bangladesh's largest non-governmental organizations operating in
the northwest regions of Rangpur and Dinajpur. The Rangpur
Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) provides support to 25,746 groups
and over 310 federations that have in turn benefited over 2.7
million people or 485,127 households among the poorest people. 

Established in 1971 following the war of independence, RDRS
started as a country program of the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) Department for World Service, evolving into a DWS associate
program, and a leading actor in rural development. Its
programmatic approach has also changed from needs-based to
rights-based, aimed at enabling the rural poor and their
institutions achieve meaningful political, social and economic
empowerment and a sustainable environment through individual and
collective efforts. 

Salma plans to stand for elections as a member of the Union
Parishad (lowest tier of the local government) in order to
represent the poor people in her village, a move she would not
have contemplated in 2000. In fact, when she first applied to
join an RDRS group, her neighbors were not supportive because
they thought she would not be able to repay the loans. Until
then, life for the couple had been a hand-to-mouth existence. 

RDRS local branch manager Abdul Gafur describes Salma as
enterprising and a role model for others. Her husband,
rickshaw-puller Ali, just smiles at the mention of his wife's
success. As a father he is pleased that his children go to
school. 

"I hope my son will pass [master's degree level] and my
daughters are more qualified so that we can live better in the
future," Salma adds. On her involvement in local politics, she
says, "I’ll grow and grow; my projects will be bigger; I’ll be
able to say goodbye to want; and I’ll help family members and
neighbors."Joss Stick Production 
Like Salma and Ali, more than 70 percent of Bangladesh's 153
million people live in rural areas, where approaches to the
problems faced by the poor are also changing. Where once a small
plot of land was enough to pull a family out of poverty, nowadays
there are different opportunities as technologies adapt and
markets widen, a principle grasped by many of the households and
groups with which RDRS works.

Roksana Begum is not only poor but also homeless in her country
of birth. Like thousands of other Biharis, she lives in a camp of
280 households just outside Saidpur with her husband Mohammad
Ibrahim and five children. For over 30 years, this community has
lived outside mainstream society, ostracized because they
supported the losing side in the 1971 war of independence. 

Despite some legal and political improvements for Biharis today,
the couple still struggles to survive on Ibrahim's daily wage
ranging from 150 to 300 taka (2.00 to 4.00 USD) as a casual
laborer at the local railway station. Until recently this was
supplemented by Roksana’s 7.00 taka (around 10 cents) income
earned from selling to a local businessman each bundle of 1,000
home-made joss sticks (a slender stick of incense burned in front
of a deity). 

Since joining an RDRS group, Roksana realized that she could
make more money by setting up her own joss stick business.
Supported by her friend Sabana, she applied for a loan of 5,000
taka (USD 73.00) to purchase the raw materials, and she gradually
increased her profits. "Before," she says, as she works in her
congested house, "I made joss sticks for others, but now I do it
for myself and even employ three other people. I earn enough
money so my family no longer suffers," she explains. 

Although Roksana now puts food on the table every day and pays
the children's school fees, she wants to expand her business. She
plans to learn how to scent the sticks - the last part of the
manufacturing process, done by the company marketing the
commodity - so that she can sell them directly to the city
traders without going through agents. Until then, she tries to
save as much as she can for the future, confident that there will
always be a market for her product. "After all," she argues,
"although I have a goat and I'm going to buy a cow soon to sell
milk, they could die and I will be poor again. But people will
always want joss sticks and I’ll always have an income."

RDRS is one of the LWF/DWS field programs providing relief and
development support to communities in 36 countries in Africa,
Asia, Latin and Central America, and Europe. (1,030 words)

(This article was compiled from a series of RDRS feature
stories. For photographs, please contact
Helen.Putsman@lutheranworld.org )

Donations to LWF/DWS work globally can be made online at:
http://donations.lutheranworld.org (
http://donations.lutheranworld.org/ )

*The article is in an LWI series focusing on the topic “Give Us
Today Our Daily Bread,” the theme of the LWF Eleventh Assembly,
which will take place 20–27 July 2010 in Stuttgart, Germany.

>*        *          *

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF
currently has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the
world, with a total membership of over 68.3 million. The LWF acts
on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such
as ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

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