Mother-of-two Reba Begum, 37, lives in Rangpur, one of the poorest districts of Bangladesh. One year ago, her family could not afford three-meals a day.
But now, with our support, Reba has increased their income and has big plans for the future.
Before, the family struggled to make ends meet from the little money that her husband, Mohammed Dula, made as a daily labourer. But then Reba joined our project to enable poor families to build secure livelihoods. As a member of a women’s association, set up by Islamic Relief in her union council, she received training on cow-rearing – as well as money to buy a cow.
Now, Reba has a cow, a calf and poultry. She sells milk and eggs, which make up most of the family’s income and has made it possible for her to improve their standard of living.
Teaming-up with other women involved in the project, she contributes to a group savings scheme. She has enterprising plans to lift her family further out of poverty.
“I have a plan to build a small-scale cow farm, with three to four cows in one shed. My special thanks to Islamic Relief Bangladesh, for doing this type of development work to help very poor families.”
Around 1,700 families are benefitting from the Islamic Relief project, which began last year and is set to complete in 2015.