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Mahideb Jubo Somaj Kallayan Somity (MJSKS) |
1. Roshna's Story
2. Samena's Story
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Samena is still now the proud owner of two prosperous livestock and being other income generating assets, she changes her livelihoods and leads a comfortable life from the earnings of these assets.
Sorofdi, one of the poorest & Monga prone village of Doldolia Union under Ulipur Upazila of Kurigram District. Most of the villagers are seized by vicious circle of poverty including various social problems. Here lives Samena with her son & husband Md. Sirajul Islam. Samena used to work as maid servant in other rich villagers house. Her husband is an agriculture day laborer who works during season of agriculture crops plantation & harvesting and in other times of the year he is jobless & do not migrates in towns as he was suffering from chronic Tuberculosis. During job season they used to take two to three meals per day & in off season one to two meals per day & had a lot of sufferings from food crisis. The crisis was so severe that her family didn't have sufficient clothing for themselves.
In this situation MJSKS came aside with her. She says "Around four years back (2009) a number of staff of MJSKS discussed about our problems & ways to get out of the problem. The staffs said you suffer mostly during Monga. If we help you by providing some income generating assets, the problem will be solved by earning money from these assets during the Monga. Then immediately we responded to the discussed issues. With the innovation fund from Economic Empowerment of the Poorest (EEP) Challenge Fund, Mahideb Jubo Somaj Kallayan Somity (MJSKS) started an innovative project to increase income generating assets and improve nutritional intake among the extreme poor households in this Monga prone area
After selecting as a project beneficiary, Samena received an orientation & training on cattle rearing before purchasing a heifer of BDT 17,500 (16-12-2009). She also received cattle housing support, supplementary IGA support (mortgage 3.5 decimal of cultivable land), cattle feed support, cattle vaccination, de-worming, other medication support, Monga Need cash support of BDT 2,250 to survive their family from food crisis.
After rearing the cattle for three months & with the aid of Oestrous Synchronization technology her heifer came into heat. The heifer was Artificially Inseminated dated on 07 April 2010 with the financial & technical assistance from MJSKS-AIDBC project. After 272 days of gestation period her heifer gave birth a cross bred (Holstein Friesian) heifer calf on 04 January 2011. Subsequently her cow gave-birth another two calf in nest two years. She procured one decimal homestead area by sold money of first calf. After selling of second calf she made & repaired her home. At the beginning of the project she lived in a small cottage & cattle also reared within the same. Now she make a separate cattle shed where at present two cattle still rearing. She reared third bull calf for fattening purpose and sold it BDT 37,000. She has invested this profit money for mortgage of 20 decimal cultivable lands. She meets up her family food requirement for year round by the production from land and thus she also mitigates and overcome her family's food insecurity successfully.
She sells produced milk regularly in local market. She says "My husband sells the milk @ 30tk/liter and buys daily family commodities for our family from earnings of milk sale. We have also some savings for future". She also says "My husband was a patient of chronic tuberculosis; I knew in fortnightly group meetings that TB is a curable disease so I took a initiative for his better treatment from nearby health service providers with the assistance of MJSKS Field Facilitator. My husband regularly maintains the intake of full course of TB medication. Now he is completely cured and leads a healthy life". Savings from different sources like crop production, milk sale, potato & cassava sale, income from duck & poultry; she bought a Rickshaw for her husband. Her husband Md. Sirajul Islam drive/pull the rickshaw and on an average he earn BDT 200/= per day. So we do not need to work in other person's house or my husband doesn't need to go to towns for job. With this asset provided by MJSKS we will be able to live happily ever after." She added "The number of my asset is increasing year after year & economic condition will also be changed. In the mean time I earned BDT 74,000/= from the selling of three cattle (calf born from heifer provided by MJSKS). I also have two goats, two poultry and four duck worth BDT 6,500/=".
Now-a-days, Samena is a self-sufficient and self-employed woman. But being sufficient asset for her livelihoods, Samena has a little bit misery and pessimism for her only one son of 17 years old who is inborn-disable both physically and mentally. She prays to Almighty and expects good wishes from all of us for her son's welfare.
She at last showed gratitude to MJSKS for their assistance. Her husband Sirajul says "Without the help of MJSKS our family might suffer from a lot of crisis".
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