End Hunger for Rural Families in Bangladesh

In last year’s progress report of May 2007, SATU reported on the support of a Medical Assistant to improve health checkups on pregnant mothers and children. This year, SATU is reporting a training that the Medical Assistant, together with SATU’s Project Officer, organized to conduct a 3-day training course on Mother and Child Healthcare to 25 pregnant women.

As a result of this training, the 25 participants can do the following: • explain about the importance of personal and environmental hygiene • describe the activities of maintaining personal and environmental hygiene • clarify the meaning of food & nutrition and food elements • express the importance of food value and food compositions • demonstrate the balanced food preparation • explicate the significant results of family planning including birth spacing and control • identify risks during pregnancy and describe the importance of Anti-natal care • identify the negative consequences (exists) and risks of delivery and explain the importance of post-natal care and safe motherhood • express the importance and techniques of a new born baby care, food and breast feeding especially colostrums • Importance of Mother & Child Vaccination

In the past year, the Medical Assistant identified 162 pregnant mothers through door-to-door visit. Among them, four pregnant mothers were referred to the Government Hospital due to complications at birth. If it wasn’t for the support of the Medical Assistant, these pregnant mothers would not have gone to the hospital in time for a health checkup to address their case.

Bishnu Rani lives in Trimohon village of the Tangail district in Bangladesh. She is the eldest of five children in her family. Bishnu’s father had a hard time bringing income to the family so education was just a dream to Bishnu and her siblings.

Bishnu recalls her past days: “We had to spend days either without food or half-fed. My father became suddenly ill. He was the only family member earning income. My mother became helpless and tensed. The pecuniary state of our family became acute. In this situation, I could not stand and do nothing, as the eldest child of the family. I started to seek solutions to our situation.”

Bishnu learned how to make baskets by using cane and bamboo sticks. She felt proud of her acquired skill and as a result became more confident. At the time, her income covered her lunch and but eventually the man who taught her this skill paid her an allowance to continue to work for him.

In time Bishnu got married to Krishna Das (the basket weaver who trained her) and within five years she had three children. It became difficult to Bishnu to support her family with the small income her husband was making. She heard about a self-help group (SHG) meeting near her home and asked permission to join the meeting. Bishnu found the discussions in the meeting interesting and saw that there were opportunities to generate income and decided to join the SHG.

She thought she could use her skills in cane and bamboo work to start a small business with the help of a microcredit from the SHG’s loan fund. She received a microcredit of US$80 and started making baskets and selling them at the local market. After repaying her loan in full, she took a second loan of US$170 and established a grocery store near her home. She now is a grocery shop owner and enjoys making cane and bamboo products in her free time. She makes a good profit from her business and as a result, can now purchase food for her family and at the same time, save money with the support of her SHG.