Better
Livelihood Through Determination
Sarbanu's economic
condition was very bad before her VGD graduating period. Her family consists of
9 members with 2 sons and 5 daughters.
Her husband
was then a rickshaw puller. With this meager income they could not manage two square meals for the family. They would often remain
half fed and half clad. One day Sarbanu went to the UP office for a certain
work. At that time she hard that the UP authority would select some potentially
needy women under a programme for 2 years. She approached her Ward Member to
enlist her name as probable card holder. As she fulfills the criteria the
member was able to manage a VGD card for her. In the 1st day training session she hard from the programme
trainer that through this food support and skills development training
they have to be self reliant. The trainer insisted them to be involved in
income generating activities at their earliest. Taking to heart this advice Sarbanu determined to do something in this regard.
She started to hoard from her monthly
ration. Through this practice she collected a considerable quantity of food
grain. She sold them and with the
proceed along with a small amount of her family savings she purchased a
she goat with Tk.2000. The she goat gave birth to 3 kids. Sarbanu sold the
goats getting better price of Tk 7000. With the amount she purchased 200
ducklings. Sarbanu received IGA training on
ducks which helped her about duck rearing. Now these ducklings are growing up and have started to lay
eggs. Her husband instead of rickshaw pulling,
now grazes the ducks in the water bodies. Her one daughter reads in class seven
and another daughter read in class five. Other children are yet to go to
school. Following the life skills
training she is now sensitive about day to day behavioral pattern including social
aspects. By this time she has managed another 125 ducklings. Now she is the
owner of 300 birds. Moreover, she has 10 hens. She is also rearing 2 cows as
share cropping. Every day she is getting
around 50 eggs whose sale proceeds stand at taka 6000 per month which lead her family a better day to
day life. As the egg laying numbers are increasing time to time it is expected that within 3 months she will get
200 eggs per day. The selling price of which will stand Tk. 24000 per month.
After related expenditure her net
profit hopefully would be Tk 16,000 per month. This example of Sarbanu has
created a sense of stir amongst other fellow VGD women who are tempted to
follow her.
