Change is never easy. As someone who thrives on change and loves the thrill of a new place, I simultaneously dread it and find I tend to react with migraines, insomnia, or other physical problems that indicate that I'm not adapting as well as I think. I'll admit the past 7 months of preparing for starting a business in Bangladesh have had many of those moments, and yet have given me multiple opportunities to see God's gentle reminders that he is going before me and working everything out. From linking with Hand and Cloth, to having SCORE volunteers helping me with business plans, to meeting up with people looking for products, to participating in Marketplace Theology courses at Regent, I am awed at how obvious it is that Hand and Cloth is God's business and I am along for the ride!
The first Monday after returning to Bangladesh, I made my first visit to the Children's Uplift Program (CUP) in Dhaka. CUP’s vision is to see children and mothers who have been in street situations living in society, helping each other, understanding God’s love and developing holistically. They provide emergency shelter, health services, social support, literacy and skill training, subsidized training, and social support, working in partnership with women and children to empower them and offer them opportunities to improve their own lives.
These opportunities include employment with Hand and Cloth. I am renting a space in the same building, so as they transition from CUP's training program to full time employment with Hand and Cloth they actually just have to move upstairs! Not too much change, you would think, but when your life has so drastically changed as the women have experienced during their time at CUP, it obviously is a big move into the unknown.
After lunch, we all sat down together to discuss some of these fears and thoughts. Thirteen women have been selected to transition to Hand and Cloth starting part time in mid April and full time in May. The faces looking back at me at the meeting were a mix of curiosity, fear, excitement, concern... Many of the women had young children clinging to them. All of them were attentive and eager to hear from this person who they had previously just seen in passing. One woman avoided my eyes and was dressed quite shabby; actually, a bit dirty. When asked why she dressed so, she admitted, she was hoping she could discourage me from selecting her to work with Hand and Cloth. This was in contrast to a woman with bright eyes wearing a bejeweled sari, more typical for a bride! She obviously wanted to make a great impression!
So pray for these 13 women as they prepare to leave the safety of the known, to step into employment. Pray for me to find a good mix of compassion and professionalism so that together we develop Hand and Cloth into a business that is effective, profitable and fun!
Badhon’s* mom died when she was 11. Her father remarried and arranged a marriage for her just before her 12th birthday. She was 14 when she gave birth to her daughter. Her husband left her shortly after her daughter’s birth. Desperate to provide for her daughter, she turned to prostitution when she was sixteen. Now twenty one, Badhon has been out of prostitution for a year and a half and the sparkle in her eyes and proud stature reveal her newfound sense of dignity. Badhon has a job making Sacred Mark soap. She budgets carefully to send her daughter to school and ensure she has the opportunities Badhon herself never had.
Fresh start
These are just a couple stories coming from MCC’s training program which gives these women a chance at a new life. Each year twenty women are selected to participate in the program. Their entry into the program is marked by a new life celebration complete with birthday cake, gifts, and a pledge to live a different life. They are provided a stipend as they learn to read, write and develop life and work skills needed to succeed in normal life. Not everyone manages to complete the training program, but for those who do, the transformation is remarkable. Upon completion of approximately eight months of training women are provided employment. A very similar program started by Serving in Mission provides the same opportunities for women who have been living on the streets of Dhaka. You can read more about both programs at http://mcc.org/stories/news/mcc-teaches-new-job-skills-former-sex-workers-bangladesh and http://www.sim.org/index.php/project/98336.
Let me tell you a bit more about myself. I grew up in Oregon but since 1989 have lived and worked in South Central Los Angeles, United Kingdom, South Africa, Zambia, and Bangladesh. My activities have ranged from missionary work with youth in Los Angeles to HIV prevention in South Africa to developing programs for AIDS orphans in Zambia to overseeing various relief and development activities in Bangladesh. I have a BA from Point Loma Nazarene University and a Masters in Public Health from Oregon State University. I have now completed a four year term with Mennonite Central Committee during which time I worked with staff to develop the Pobitra Training Program. I will return to Bangladesh in March 2011 independently to start a business which will develop, produce, and distribute high quality handicrafts. There are already forty women participating in job training who will need work within the next six months. I will return to Bangladesh in March with the organization Hand and Cloth (please see handandcloth.org). I am in need of your support to make this a success.
If you are interested in being part of creating jobs which give women a life of dignity and respect here's where your money could go:
$1000 per month salary needed for Robin to go to Bangladesh as an investor starting a business. This will cover a simple lifestyle as well as flights, health insurance, student loans and may even leave some extra to go back into the business operations budget.
$9 per week subsidizes one woman's salary until her business becomes profitable.
$55 subsidizes a full month of one child's day care expenses and helps break the cycle of poverty by ensuring each young child has a good meal, a head start on education, and stimulating play.
$100 purchase one sewing machine to help develop a women's cooperative business
$221 purchase one serger to help develop a women's cooperative business
$294 purchase one embroidery machine to help develop a woman's cooperative business
$412 purchase on industrial strength washing mashine to help develop a women's cooperative business
Make a donation by going to handandcloth.org, specify Bangladesh in the note section or send your contribution to 4742 Liberty Road South, #193, Salem, Oregon 97302. Please make checks payable to Evergreen Church, specify Bangladesh in the memo, and include your address if you want a tax deduction.
Thank you for your prayers and support!
I had finished my workout, taken a shower, and just settled down to my evening treat of vegetables and a bowl of popcorn for dinner and a comedy episode when the phone rang. One of our girls from the 2008 job training program was in very serious condition in the hospital. I grudgingly put my dinner aside and headed to the hospital.
The local hospital is always an experience. First of all, there are so many rows of buildings and floors, finding the ward you need is the first challenge. En route you see so many people hobbling in on the arms of loved ones, being wheeled on a cot, or other visitors like you trying to find their patient.
This time I was looking for the operation theatre of the maternity ward. I was told the wrong building and the wrong floor first but eventually ended up in the right place. She was in a room where another woman's cesarean was happening so we had to wait outside in the muggy cement room without a chair or sign of welcome until after the baby boy emerged. The doctor sent my colleague to see if it was possible to get a test done that night or if they should wait until morning. When she returned to say they could go immediately the doctor had decided she needed to stabilize more first. They had us wheel her to a different ward where she had to share a bed. She did have a bed though... many patients are sleeping on a blanket on the cement floor.
Gradually more and more of the story emerged. Her husband had kicked her the day before. She had bled some but the next day at work began to bleed profusely. She said she was not aware of being pregnant but tests revealed she was actually four months along.
They had her husband donate blood for her, and had my colleague by some medicine and supplies (it's very much a self service place which I guess makes sense with that many people. At the same time, I wonder what happens to those who don't have someone to bring them medicine, food, wheel them to tests...). One doctor decided they didn't need the blood right away and it should be taken to the blood bank. Half an hour later they sent me back to the blood bank to bring it back. Back through the winding, confusing corridors! At the blood bank, the gloveless lab technician flicked blood with his bare finger before collecting the bag for me to carry back to the patient.
Then I needed to get more supplies as my colleague had taken them to her house so they wouldn't be stolen. When I returned, I started to sit on the edge of the bed which she now had to herself. As I did, I noticed blood everywhere. I jumped up quickly and found out it was blood that spilled when they were setting up the transfusion. Yeah, I don't want to sit in that really. Universal Precautions anybody?
Behind a curtain, babies were being born. The first one I didn't get to close too not wanting to be a nuisance, but on the second one I decided to take advantage of the fact that they probably wouldn't send the white lady away and edged closer. The mom seemed limp and was hardly making noise. The doctor seemed to be pulling with all her might to get the baby out. As they carried her over by us, the baby still was a greenish colour, sludgy and making no sound. They suctioned her out using equipment which looks like what you've maybe seen at a medical museum, and finally the soft cry came, eventually turning to a much welcome scream!
There was a family member staying with my friend so I decided to head home at midnight in spite of all the exciting happenings, including two more babies on the way. She was now more awake than she had been before, so, in my halting Bangla I told her about the woman with the years of bleeding who in faith touched Jesus and was healed. Not only is the physical healing needed; her broken violent family needs the touch of God. Please pray for her, her two children, and her husband, that somehow from this God will be glorified.
Coming back into town we past some public areas crammed with people living in temporary camps. We stopped and met a few people. First is Babu Ram. He and his family have been in this temporary camp for three months. The road to their house is under water and their porch has turned to mud.
Walking further down the road we came to another camp. People came quickly to meet us. Here are some of the faces I saw.
And last but not least.... here is baby Bona... meaning flood. She is so named because she was born into this camp during the flood. You may notice her mom looks like she should be playing with dolls rather than having a baby. Unfortunately, natural disasters exacerbate social problems such as early marriage, child labour, ... as families often don't have the resources to provide for their children any other way.
Mango trees dying from being submerged
Kids playing in spite of the hardships
This highschool is not operational due flooding
This is the road to the primary school, now underwater
Tala Upazilla of Shatkira district in Bangladesh was once a place where people could grow rice, pulses, vegetables, and have fruit trees. For the past four plus years the rivers have become increasingly clogged and water can't flow out into the sea, leaving people waterlogged for up to seven months of the year. The people's homes are typically made of mud, which become engorged with water and collapse. Some who are able to build their houses on higher foundations or use cement or bricks, are perhaps able to stay in their homes, but larger numbers are forced to relocate to temporary shelters on the roadside or in public areas such as school grounds. Obviously there are health and safety issues, not to mention the pain and stress of having your livelihood, your home, your food sources... being wiped out year after year after year. We are working with a local NGO to put in tubewells that will be raised above flood levels so that they will be accessible and remain uncontaminated year round.
I scribbled notes in my little book when I first arrived back in Bangladesh. As the newness wore off, I thought maybe they didn't still apply, but I think it does. So here you go, scribbled out 15 October and making it to a posting 8 November:
So I'm back in Bangladesh and what can I say.... One comfort on my return was that I was to arrive at midnight, to slip back discreetly into the quiet and coolness of night. The storm in the Pacific Nothwest, the mad dash to catch my flight in San Francisco after a delay from Portland, the taxi to the runway only to sit for 3-1/2 hours watching the fierce winds blow water in sheets along the pavement, the eventual return to the gate accruing ultimately a 13 hour late arrival into Bangladesh... all meant that I was instead thrown immediately into the steamy heat of the early afternoon, the weaving traffic, the skinny boys indicating they want food, the limbless men waving their stubs seeking a donation, a woman vomiting from a bus, a rickshaw wallah straining with a massive load stacked way above his head. And you may be asking, how does it feel to be back. And what can I say? I would love for the warm days of an Oregon summer to linger forever. To continue spending time with my family, watching my nieces and nephew grow, riding my bike, floating down the river in my kayak. No amount of relaxation can last long once thrown back to the throbbing mass, the sooty humid air, the constant disparity between the arrogant rich and the desperate poor. But there's something here that is gritty and real, that will break your heart and heal it up again, that will teach you what hope and love really is. And I wish I could show you this place because there is something about it that feels like home.
Overall I feel my preparation of kicks and squats courtesy of Billy Blanks Bootcamp prepared me as much as possible for 3 days on a camel, but really, how do you prepare for 3 days on a camel? When we stopped for lunch I was pretty surprised my legs could still hold me up. I loved the simple meals of whole grain chapatti’s and vegetables always preceded by tea. We had hours of siesta which did get long as suddenly the heat became really intense and sticky. Around 3 it cooled off a bit and it was time to climb back up on the camels and carry on. It was really relaxing to travel through the desert seeing the plants, wildlife (deer and mice), birds and just enjoying life. Just when I was about ready to really STOP enjoying life, these children came running out of the desert like a mirage carrying water soaked jute bags full of semi cold sodas. It was the most amazing think I have put in my mouth! It was also time for the camels to have a drink from a well, and a short hike later we were making camp on a beautiful sand dune, settling in first to watch the sunset and then to see the most amazing display of stars I have seen for a long time.
My response to the sand beetles was not exactly what one would refer to as stoic. The Camel Guide’s assistant, in his limited English, assured me they would not hurt me and would only give “beetle kiss”. O but how much I did not WANT beetle kisses. The first night they seemed like they liked Dave best but night two, perhaps as my hair smelt more like camel dung, they seemed to be drawn to me as well. As were some wild dogs trying to befriend Sarah during the night. Regardless, sleeping on the sand dunes and waking to a big cup of tea being put by your bedding in the morning was pretty fabulous.
It has been quite a week. For our alternative employment program, we have been working with an NGO that provides support and empowerment to street based sex workers to ensure their human rights and promote their health and safety. There are more than 500 women who are members of this NGO. We took 26 women last year, and gave them training and an a way out of the trade. As it's not easy to develop work for people, we started with only 10 new women this month. We selected criteria to prioritize who we would take... women who were the wage earners of their families, widows, women without options. Unfortunately, some less than respectable people decided to try to profit from the situation and took money from women saying they could get them in, and then tried to threaten our staff to get their way. There were threats and scenes throughout the week, and at one point we went to the police and had them come to address the issue.
The training center where they meet is right in their community and has some issues like poor ventilation, flooding, dampness, lack of light... but as they could not find anyone else locally who would rent to a project like this we had just the week before decided to make the best of it and make a few alterations to try to solve these problems. As the troubles erupted, the ladies with fear in their faces said they wanted the center to be moved out of the area, and with concerns for safety, we decided to look for a new building. The one we found is ideal; very secure, midway between the slum where most of the women are coming from and the MCC office, has space to start our childcare program and have a separate office and maybe even a showroom, is clean and dry and well ventilated. My colleague was giddy with excitement and said, "God is always on our side." I think he really is and hope I can remember that next time everything seems to be a disaster. I'm still saddened though at how many women are living these tragic lives with no options. Ten women is such a drop in the bucket and so many could be spared the daily horrors if more jobs could be created. Please pray that these women will quickly become employable (they are admittedly crude when they start the program), and that jobs will open up for them so we can take in more women as soon as possibe.
I just had my first Oregon visitor in Bangladesh, Stanley. Flat Stanley that is. I think he had rather a good time and hope he will tell others what an interesting place Bangladesh is. Here he is riding a rickshaw in Dhaka.
