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Woman with cow

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Woman with goat

Help that Changes Life

We are sitting in a small Church that serves as both Church and school in the little village in northern Bangladesh. As usual, the village-people give us a warm welcome with song, dance and flowers. A couple of years ago we attended the inauguration of the project, a project where women get some money, that partly is a loan, so they can make some investments. Some have bought goats and are now feeding them and hope they can sell the kids the goat gives birth to. We ask them what has happened since the project started, and if the project has changed their lives. One woman stands up and tells about the positive effects of the project. “Before we entered the project, we had no money if someone became sick and needed to see the doctor. Now we have money if we need to see a doctor.” Having shared different things, they want to show us their goats and cows that are a result of the project. One year ago some of them showed us some goats they had bought, but now they are proud to show that they have managed to buy a cow. Some people have used the money to set up a small shop in the market place and some have bought material for some kind of production. When asking the project leader about some positive effects of the project, he mentions that the children have become more regular in school simply because they don’t need to work so much in the fields to earn money for the family. Many children also have better clothes.

 

Why is the help given to women and how can a small amount of money make such a change? Well, the banks don’t give credits to poor people. The only option is to borrow money from people that give loans with extortionate interest. This means they can never get rid of the debt and will be dependent oft this moneylenders maybe for the whole Life. By this help they will be able to come out of this evil circle. When people are very poor, they live from hand to mouth and as soon they have got some money they take the opportunity to buy what they need, and everything is finished quickly. Therefore it is a great help for them to see that they can do something about their situation. We have seen that the women are concerned about the need of the whole family and therefore they are a target-group for this help.  

 

Our western money can do much when converted into the currencies of the poor countries. Even a small amount can help people out of the evil circle of poverty. Welcome to join us so we can give hope and a good future for many poor people.

 

Tord Johansson

 

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Village in Bangladesh