Amina's journey of empowerment through GPOP

“When my husband died, I had no money to take care of my children,” said Amina, 37, a widowed mother of three.

Amina then became the only breadwinner of her family of four and her meagre income of BDT 3,600 (USD 30) was barely enough to cover her family’s most basic needs. Most days, Amina was hardly able to provide for her children Arifa, 15, Osma, 11, and Kayes, 8.

But then she became involved with World Vision Bangladesh’s GPOP project, funded by the Australian government and World Vision Australia. Amina was trained in small business management and goat rearing and she also received homestead gardening inputs such as papaya, banana and moringa saplings. The family became able to provide their own nutritional sustenance and also sell the excess produced in their local market. Amina began to make an average of BDT 8,000 (USD 99.56) every month. Amina also opened a bank account with Dutch Bangla Bank where she has accumulated BDT 13,000 (USD 130.57) by saving BDT 300 every month. She also has savings with her local savings group and CBO. This habit of saving that women like Amina learned through GPOP is one of the project’s proudest achievements.

The GPOP project not only focuses on increasing income, but it also encompasses other social issues necessary for building villages with healthy people with decent lives.