Bashundhara Shuvosangho, a voluntary organisation of the country’s leading industrial conglomerate Bashundhara Group, has recently handed over sewing machines to 60 insolvent women in Phulbari, Chilmari, and Ulipur upazilas of Kurigram district, reports Daily Sun.
The sewing machines were provided to them for free upon completion of a three-month training at the Shuvosangho Training Centre in the area.
Upon receiving the machines, they began struggling to alter their fates with needles and threads.
Shahima Begum, one of the beneficiaries, got divorced in 2016. Since then, she has been living in Chilmari upazila with her two daughters, one in sixth grade and the other in third grade. She has to work as a domestic helper and goes door to door with other people to manage her family and education expenses for her daughters.
Expressing her hardships, Shahima said she lives in a government-sponsored house. Her husband had a second marriage and now lives with his wife in Dhaka. He doesn't care about his two daughters.
She is diligently working to support her daughters' education, and now the sewing machine is providing her with the necessary assistance.
Laboni Akhter, a student of Ulipur Women’s Degree College, lost her father in 2018. She said she and her mother have been facing acute hardship after the death of her father.
After getting a sewing machine, Laboni said, “Now the machine will help them stand on their own feet.”
She also extended her heartfelt thanks to Bashundhara for standing beside them with the assistance.
Not just Shahima and Laboni, but the hardships of all the sixty women who got the sewing machines in the three upazilas of Kurigram are almost the same.
After receiving a sewing machine, Nazmin Nahid, a resident of Chilmari upazila, said she received the sewing machine when she was facing financial difficulties.
Nazmin Nahid, who recently divorced, said she can now become self-reliant with the sewing machine. She expressed gratitude towards the Bashundhara Group for appearing as a saviour in her life.
Activists of the voluntary platform initiated a philanthropic initiative to assist helpless women in becoming self-reliant by providing them with sewing machines during a three-day programme.
Zakaria Jaman, director of Bashundhara Shuvosangho, Abul Khayar Faroque, Kaler Kantho Kurigram correspondent, Rokonuzzaman, its regional correspondent, multimedia coordinator Sohel Rana and Humayan Kabir, district correspondent of News24, among others, were present at the three-day function. Speaking on the occasion, speakers said Bashundhara exemplifies humanitarian activities by turning the helpless and backward women of the country into self-reliant.
Apart from the sewing machine, the business group is engaged in setting up schools and libraries for children of marginal poor families and providing interest-free loans among the underprivileged women to bring a change in their lives, they said.
Zakaria Jaman said Bashundhara Group has assisted 5,000 families in becoming self-reliant by providing sewing machines after a free three-month sewing training session.
“We will continue our charitable activities in the future. Bashundhara is committed to standing by the helpless in society,” he said.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
