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Country Profiles |
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FHI and DRISTI: A Vision of Empowerment in Bangladesh
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AUGUST 2009 — Lucky Zaman has been the sole financial support for her extended family since she was a young girl. The daughter of a bus driver from a village in the Comilla District of Bangladesh, she is the oldest of three brothers and two sisters. Her father died when she was 12, leaving the family without an income. Lucky quit school to earn money to support them. At age 15, Lucky was married and gave birth to a baby boy. Not long after, her husband went abroad to look for work, and Lucky was faced with the overwhelming challenge of providing for her entire family—her mother and siblings, as well as her son. She took a job at a hotel, and while working there she became involved in sex work as a way to bring in enough money to provide for her family. In 2002, an FHI partner organization called Dristi (a Bangla word meaning "vision") changed the course of Lucky's life. Dristi began holding HIV and STI prevention sessions for hotel-based sex workers in Comilla. Lucky attended a session, and realized there were resources available to help her. She became a peer educator, teaching other sex workers about HIV prevention. Dristi's core program is providing loans and training in income generating activities (IGA) to poor women who are married, divorced, separated, or widowed. Lucky enrolled in a training program for committed peer educators, and became eligible for a loan to start her own business.
"I will remain grateful to Dristi for giving me the opportunity to work with the IGA program, which pulled me and my family from devastation," she says. Dristi has provided more than 24,000 loans to nearly 9,000 women. Lucky Zaman has taken three loans from the organization, and has repaid them all. PHOTOS: A small loan from Dristi in 2002 enabled Lucky Zaman to buy her first milk cow. By 2008 and two loans later, she had grown a small business to support her family. (FHI/Bangladesh) Dristi has been an FHI partner since 2002. FHI provides financial and technical support to Dristi to implement HIV and STI prevention activities. |
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Initially Lucky took a loan of BDT 15,000 (US$220) to buy a milk cow. She invested some of her savings and expanded this business to include cow rearing, producing ghee (butter), and selling sweets. By 2008, Lucky owned five cows, two bulls, and two calves, and was able to purchase a small plot of land, where she now lives and continues to support her family. She is no longer involved in sex work. One of her brothers is in training for a job; another brother and two sisters are in school.