House rebuilding and Repairing Project at Aarong, Bangladesh

Using contributions from Trade Aid and Aarong's other trading partners, a scheme in support of producers suffering from the frequent floods and other disasters that drive them from their homes has been set up.  On the return to their homes, the producer's dwellings are often no longer habitable, and they do not have the resources to rebuild them - and yet for only US$74.00 a house can be repaired “in such a way that it lasts for at least three-four years and survives any natural disaster”.  US$150.00 will rebuild a “strong house” with a roof of iron sheets, wooden doors and windows and a bamboo fence.

Those selected for inclusion in the scheme, after a survey of producers was conducted, are women who are the sole earners in the family because their husbands are disabled or unable to work, widows and divorcees, those who are homeless and those unable to meet expenditure for day to day necessities, let alone the repair of a house.  As of the beginning of 2007, building has now begun. Trade Aid’s contribution to this project will see the building of nine strong houses and the repairing of another.

Achia Begum’s Story

One of the recipients of a new house is Achia Begum (see picture – she is in the centre, her daughter stands on her right and her mother is second from right in the photo).  Achia was married fifteen years ago and was supposed to move to her in-law’s house.  However this never happened and after a year her husband absconded and never came back, leaving her to care for her daughter.  Achia was able to join the Barul Block Print Centre as an apprentice, and through her earnings has been able to send her daughter to secondary school, support her elderly mother as well as her married brother’s family.  And now she is getting a new house.