Women are empowered through computer skills and tailoring.
Your gift can help raise women and their families out of poverty.
Although my name, Nuri, means light, often my life has not lived up to that. I grew up with my sister in a rural area of Bangladesh. Life was not easy for us economically or socially. Many in the area looked down on us, especially my mother for she could not produce any sons. My father did not have a regular job and was mainly a day laborer, so we did not have much money or security. Still, my mother and father were determined to put us through school.
When I was sixteen, my father died but my mother remained committed to seeing me get a degree from a local college. Those were hard years for us all.
After I graduated, my marriage was arranged to someone I did not know. As time progressed, my in-laws kept demanding more and more dowry and my mother was unable to pay. That was an extremely difficult and dark part of my life. I was living with a family that was wringing every penny they could out of my mother by threatening me. Eventually my husband divorced me, a big stigma for a woman in Bangladesh, and I had to return to my mother with my son, which brought her shame in our community.
Despite having a degree, I could not get a permanent job. However, I was able to privately tutor some children after school, giving my mother and sister a very small income. It was helpful, but not enough.
I was at the point of despair then I heard there was a computer training course run by OM. I started the basic computing course not having touched a computer in my life! I was frightened on the first day. How would my teacher treat me since I was totally computer-illiterate?. But what I experienced was incredible. For the first time in my life, I was working with people who had a different attitude and behavior. The teacher and workers in the project really cared, listened and helped. They did not see us just as students but as people who mattered and were important. When we had a problem, they did their utmost to help. This spoke volumes into my life and changed me.
After successfully completing the course, I was able to get a job in a good office which has brought stability to our family which we've never had before. I am able to provide for my aging mother, my sister, and my son. The income is not massive but sufficient, and there is security.
It was because of the computer training that I was able to provide financially for my family. But I got much more than that. Being a part of that training brought me dignity and instilled new values in my life. The time spent in that training has changed me. The example and values that I saw in the lives of those who ran the course are what I now try to reflect in my family, workplace and community. It is the name I was given; it is light.
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ch year, 120 literate women are offered the same education Nuri had, at one of four computer training centers in Bangladesh. The women learn Information Technology, high professional standards, good working relationships, and how to stand up to corruption. Almost none of these students would have a computer at home or access to one in their school. A survey showed that 80% of students in this program went on to find employment within the next 12 months. If you would like to be part of this outreach, cost per student is $200 and a new computer is $500.
Illiterate women have a harder time finding training for meaningful work. In Bangladesh, many are forced into culturally and physically inappropriate manual labor jobs, such as road repair. The garment industry is one of the few dignified and relatively safe professions there for illiterate women. So OM has established four tailoring centers to teach sewing skills. The women are trained from pattern design to finished full garments, allowing them access to skilled factory jobs or small home businesses. A confident woman earning an income brings up confident children who are better nourished and healthier. To send one women through tailoring training is $200, and $100 provides a sewing machine for their own home business.
Thanks for partnering with this project, helping give dignity to the women of Bangladesh.
Computer Skills Training: Tailoring Skills Training:
