FEBRUARY 2004

Women Animators in Bangladesh:
Living the Principles of The Hunger Project

The future of Bangladesh is the future of its women. The Hunger Project in Bangladesh is committed to empowering women’s leadership as our highest priority (see back page). The centerpiece of our strategy has been to dramatically increase the number of women trained as Hunger Project animators. From 1999 until today, the number of women animators has increased from 950 to almost 12,000.

Animators are volunteers trained in the principles of The Hunger Project who lead Vision, Commitment and Action Workshops and empower villagers to take self-reliant action.

In December, eight Bangladeshi women animators, chosen as young women who could one day become leaders of their country, traveled to India. There they had meetings with Joan Holmes, Hunger Project investors and Indian women leaders about women’s philanthropy and leadership. The women met privately with Joan and shared their extraordinary stories of courage, which are presented here.

 

Principle - The human spirit: In addition to survival needs, every human being has a fundamental need to lead a life of dignity, meaning and purpose - to know that her or his life makes a difference.

Barnali from Kishoregan


Barnali’s 16-year-old younger sister was kidnapped by terrorists. After her return, she was rushed into a marriage, which proved to be violently abusive, and then sent home - a humiliation in Bangladeshi society.

As a result of her sister’s ordeal, Barnali’s life was severely restricted. She was kept out of college and not permitted to leave home.

During these very hard times, a friend invited her to an animator training. The training empowered Barnali to regain her confidence. As a result, she stepped out of her home and resumed her studies. She began mobilizing the people in her village, and the quality of life improved. She has become a volunteer trainer, her leadership has been recognized in the village, and her family’s status has been restored.

She says, “It would be virtually impossible for me to pay back my debt to The Hunger Project.”

 

 

Shukti from Dinajpur

At the age of 17, Shukti was disowned by most of her family because she was assaulted by a man whose advances she rejected. She contemplated suicide. Only her mother stood by her, and encouraged her to take the animator training.

The training was a turning point in Shukti’s life. She rediscovered her strength. She went back to school. She now not only supports herself financially, but also contributes financially to the family that had rejected her.

Shukti has taken the next step of becoming a volunteer trainer and leads the animator training. She now knows that her mission is to provide women the safe environment in which they can fully express themselves and confront the social conditions that deny them the opportunity to lead a life of self-reliance and dignity.

 

 

Principle - Leadership: Ending hunger requires committed leadership - that can call forth vision and commitment, and mobilize the people to take effective action - at all levels of society.

Nishat from Brahmanbaria


Nishat comes from a family of six girls. Her father was shunned by the community for having no sons. She was neglected her whole life. Although ignored by her father, Nishat was desperate to make him proud.

Nishat got involved in local politics, yet felt ineffective in her leadership until she took the animator training. The training gave her focus, and she became effective as a leader. She says, “I now trust myself to know what’s right. I don’t waste any time. I go straight to the bureaucrats to resolve problems and have the system changed.”

Nishat will run in local council elections again in 2006 and aspires to become a member of parliament. She now has the satisfaction of knowing she has made her father proud.
 

 

 

Rasheda from Comilla


Rasheda’s father died when she was an infant, and her mother struggled to rear her family of seven children. Her father had been a freedom fighter for Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan.

Her mother was promised that Rasheda could complete college after she was married in 1980, but that promise was not kept. Rasheda studied secretly with her children, taking 14 years to complete her bachelor’s degree.

Rasheda read country director Badiul Majumdar’s newspaper article on women’s rights, and was inspired to take the animator training. In the training, Rasheda saw both her father and herself newly. She saw that their shared struggle was to unleash people’s spirit. After the workshop, she worked with rickshaw pullers who wanted a better future for their children. She created income-generating opportunities for women. She works with children and schools. She feels that Badiul is her second father.

Rasheda now understands the traditional saying: “One spark can light a lot of candles. One person can change the world.”

 

Principle - Self-reliance: The work of ending hunger must build from people’s own creativity - their own skills, resources and decision-making.
Shahana from Noakhali


Like many girls in Bangladesh’s patriarchal society, Shahana’s family married her off at an early age. One day in 1998, her husband went to work and never returned home. An animator in her village invited her to an animator training. “I felt a blindfold was taken from my eyes! I’m now determined that my daughter never has to live as I did.”

Shahana has taken on the issue of clean drinking water, as the water in her district is contaminated with arsenic. She formed a cooperative that works with a bottled water company to produce clean and drinkable water. She also ensures that there is at least one meeting a month in which villagers discuss issues like arsenic poisoning, health, nutrition and sanitation.

 

Mili from Dinajpur


Mili attended her first Vision, Commitment and Action Workshop in Dhaka in 1996 - where she heard Joan speak. She came away deeply inspired, yet didn’t take the animator training for four years. “Now that I see how much I can make happen as an animator, I feel that I wasted those four years,” she says.

Once she became an animator, Mili created income-generating opportunities by establishing a clothing boutique that provides employment for 25 women. These women earn up to US$50 per month - which lifts their families above the poverty line. Mili also works with 30 young boys who’ve been sent to the city to earn money doing small errands on the streets, like polishing shoes and washing cars, and she teaches them to read and write.

 

Principle - Catalyzing a phenomenon: The end of hunger will be a phenomenon - an unleashing of the creativity and productivity of hundreds of millions of hungry people.

Jharna from Shatkhira

Jharna’s father and father-in-law were headmen in their villages. She saw that the headman’s judgments were always against women in disputes.

To confront this discrimination, Jharna decided to run for a seat in the local council. Her father-in-law was furious and gave her an ultimatum: if she failed to win the election, she would be thrown out of the house. She won the election.

Once elected, however, she couldn’t see how to use the opportunity. She took the Vision, Commitment and Action Workshop, where she discovered the power of mobilizing the people. She hosted an animator training in her village for 56 women. These animators are now empowering hundreds of women in their communities to lease land and earn incomes. Jharna’s mobilization skills are now renowned throughout her district.

Monowara from Narayangang


Monowara comes from a very poor background. She struggled for her right to an education when her family wanted to marry her off - and she succeeded. She then married and created a partnership with her husband to improve the status of women in her area.

She took the animator training in 1997, and learned to develop skills she needed to empower women. Since then, she has mobilized women to earn money by creating income-earning opportunities, such as making and selling candles and other handicraft items. She trains birth attendants so that mothers are neither injured nor die while giving birth.

Today - catalyzed by Monowara’s leadership - there are 1,200 animators in her area. The entire staffs of two schools in her area have taken the animator training and run their schools according to Hunger Project principles.

 

Women Animators - the Key to Ending Hunger in Bangladesh

Bangladesh, like most of South Asia, has some of the highest child-malnutrition rates in the world - twice as high as in sub-Saharan Africa. Studies have shown that these unusually high rates of malnutrition are due to the severe subjugation of women in that society.

The subjugation of women gives rise to a pernicious cycle of malnutrition.

  • A baby girl in Bangladesh is born underweight and malnourished. She is nursed less and fed less nutritious food than her brother. She is often denied health care and education.
  • She is forced to work, even as a child. Her work burden increases significantly as she gets older - even when she is pregnant.
  • She is married and pregnant when she is young, often just a teenager. She is underweight and malnourished when she gives birth to her children, who are born underweight and malnourished. And the cycle continues.
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    Women animators in Bangladesh are at the forefront of transforming this condition.

  • Standing together, women animators are developing the courage and strength to confront the abuses against women - and are speaking out about social conditions that must be changed.
  • They are providing a safe environment in which women can communicate openly for the first time.
  • They are role models in their villages - inspiring thousands of other women to step out of their homes, earn incomes and keep their daughters in school.
  • Women animators are beginning to forge new partnerships with their husbands, fathers and the other men of their villages - partnerships that would be based on mutual respect and equality.
  • Increasingly, women animators participate as leaders in local democracy - mobilizing both women and men to take action to build lives of self-reliance and dignity.
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