• Home
• About us
• Contact us
• How to order
• Links
• Shopping basket

• OUTDOOR LIVING
• POTTING SHED
• AFTER GARDENING
• MUST HAVES
• GIFTS

Hathay Bunano seeks to strengthen rural communities in Bangladesh by creating employment for women which is good quality, fairly paid, flexible and local; work which fits in with the rhythm of village life.   Whilst the rural production centres are open all day, the women choose their hours of work to fit in with their other family commitments.   It’s a model which is helping to prevent early marriage and keep families together.

Ruma Akter is determined and bright and typical of the women Hathay Bunano employs.   She was only 9 years old when her education stopped because her family could no longer afford to send her to school.  She has 7 sisters and 2 brothers, of which 5 sisters are already married and a year ago Ruma was sure that this would also be her fate.   She was making fishing nets and earning less than $10 a month despite working long hours.

In August 2008 she joined in the Hathay Bunano crochet course in Bangora, just 5 minutes walk from her home.  She enjoyed the work and learnt quickly, starting to earn money after only 4 weeks training.    In January 2009 her diligence and the quality of her work were rewarded when she was offered the salaried position of Supervisor of the rural production centre where she had only a few months earlier been a student herself.

Having never previously travelled beyond her village she now travels to Dhaka twice each month to manage the work and the payments for the centre and thrives on her independence.   Talk of marriage has stopped for a while since she is able to contribute to her family income and is an asset to have at home.   She wants to become a trainer, like Turani, who trained her a year earlier, and to travel the country setting up new rural production centres and helping more women gain independence of their own lives.

The rural poor women of Bangladesh are not a burden or victims, they are capable and competent and lack only opportunity.   Hathay Bunano works to create opportunity for these women through the creation of wonderful hand knitted children’s toys like these vegetable rattles.