June 9th, 2024
Helena and her Magic lamp of ICT
MOUKHARA, a rural hinterland village, is situated in the north-west part of Bangladesh. Like other villages in the country, rich and poor people also live together in this village. Some people are owners of big auto-rice mills, and some are day laborers in this same village. Usury is also prevalent in this village, and at the same time, hunger and starvation affect the people.
Once, Helena and her child, along with two sisters, lived in this village. We can describe her tiny house for proper realization of the socio-economic condition of Helena as follows:
Immediately after rainfall, their floor was flooded by rainwater. The roof of the house was made of leaves and straw. The wall was made of mud. Even in the daytime, darkness more or less covered the house because there was no window in the room. Actually, there was no furniture except some dirty clothes, some hanging jars made of jute rope, an aluminium jug, and two earthenware plates. Although there was some firewood near the Chula (burner),. Three or four years ago, this was Helena's family life. But now, while she was giving an interview with me, she was standing on the veranda (front space of the house) of her four-room tin shed building, which was made with her own income. Let us find out the story of Helena's life struggle in her own statement.
'I am Mrs. Helena Begum. My father was a day laborer. We were eight children (six sisters and two brothers) of my father. Can you imagine how painful the situation was? How a family like this can run on one day's laborer’s income. So my elder sister and I departed from our family, and we took shelter in my uncle's house. I had a chance to get some education, but my older sister was quite illiterate. Due to the overburdening of the family, my uncle gave us an early marriage. My husband was an unemployed, illiterate man. He had no work to do. Even he had not a piece of land of his own to stand out.
My grandmother had a straw-made house. She donated it to us. And that was our dream house for conjugal life. Please listen to my life story. My husband started to torture me immediately after one week of our marriage. After a few days, he also stopped giving me any kind of expenses. He was a day laborer at an auto-rice mill and didn't come home regularly. He didn't take any care of me, my activities, or my movement. In his workplace, he was busy with other girls. Sometimes he would come home, and torture me even more for any minor wrong. After one year of our marriage, I produced a female child. This added misery to my life. But at the request of the villagers, my husband then started to provide me with fifty taka (less than one dollar) per week. But the amount was so small that I was not able to provide for my family. I cooked 250 grams of rice once a day, and the rest of the time we suffered from hunger. Suffering was so much that my sweet child didn't get any breast milk? The situation made my child take rice instead of breast milk, but still, the money was fifty taka. When I went to the kitchen and cooked 250 grams of rice, it was not possible for me to take it in my mouth, due to my sister's hungry appearance. How can I take my food while they are suffering from hunger. Then I made a plan and mixed some leafy vegetables with rice, and after it was boiled, every one of us took it.
This was my life!
Due to extreme poverty, I had to work as a maidservant in a neighboring, people's house. In the meantime, I produced my second male child. When the child was in the infant stage Grameen entered in our village. We, some of our neighboring women poor villagers started shomiti (association) after counseling with one another. Since then gradually I started to improve my condition of life by taking micro-credit from Grameen. When Grameen offers me a cellular phone it seems to me as an "Aladdin's Lamp."
After getting a cellular phone, 1 purchased 20 decimals of land from its income. My leafy dream house has now turned into a tin-shed building. My elder daughter Nasima is now reading in college and my second son Rubel is reading in class nine. I am providing their educational expenses. Grameen's mobile phone has brought a change in my lifestyle. To me, it's a magic lamp. This lamp offered me solvency and gave me the certainty of fulfilling my dream and hope of happiness. I pay my respect.to respect Grameen Bank and its Founder Prof. Muhammad Yunus.'
The benefit of ICT worked like a magic lamp in Helena's life. She received the mobile phone in the year 2000, but in the meantime, she paid bills nearabout 3,60,000 taka (6000 US $). So it can easily be estimated how much profit she gained from this phone. Once she was an asset-less, helpless maidservant, but now she is an owner of many valuable assets. Now she is living in a four-room building. Besides this, she has 30 decimal land adjacent to the highway. She is now depositing 700 taka (12 US $) per month in Grameen Bank in a deposit Pension scheme. Once she deposited 80,500 taka (1388 US $) in Grameen Bank, which she later spent to build her house.
Now Helena herself is an entrepreneur. She is providing training in tailoring to distressed women in her village. After being trained by Helena, many poor villagers are becoming self-reliant day by day. Like Helena, some other GB borrowers are doing mobile phone business in the village. Helena's comments in this regard are as follows, "I realize the actual pain of hunger and starvation from my own life. After a serious struggle, I become self-reliant. So if other poor people become self-reliant through struggle, I have nothing to feel jealous about. Instead, I become highly satisfied at their joyous appearance, which I don't get anywhere in the world." Her efforts brought a change in the appearance of the whole Moukhara village. It decreased the number of money-lenders who provided taka-1000 as capital and did usurious business. A soft touch of ICT brought solvency to Helena and turned her into an entrepreneur. There are millions like Helen living in our rural Bangladesh. Some of them get the benefit of ICT, but most of them are suffering from hunger and starvation. When the farmers of other countries in the world are now receiving information about agriculture, and weather forecasts, and exchanging their ideas through the Internet, unfortunately, most of the farmers of our country still do not know even the word "Internet." Information and communication technology for eliminating poverty is still infant stage in our country. But only ICT can bring prosperity to the poor people and can dramatically reduce the rate of poverty in this country. The mobile technology of Grameen created many such examples of Helena those who gained solvency and inspired others to become solvent.
Source: The Independent Date: 5 March, 2004
Once, Helena and her child, along with two sisters, lived in this village. We can describe her tiny house for proper realization of the socio-economic condition of Helena as follows:
Immediately after rainfall, their floor was flooded by rainwater. The roof of the house was made of leaves and straw. The wall was made of mud. Even in the daytime, darkness more or less covered the house because there was no window in the room. Actually, there was no furniture except some dirty clothes, some hanging jars made of jute rope, an aluminium jug, and two earthenware plates. Although there was some firewood near the Chula (burner),. Three or four years ago, this was Helena's family life. But now, while she was giving an interview with me, she was standing on the veranda (front space of the house) of her four-room tin shed building, which was made with her own income. Let us find out the story of Helena's life struggle in her own statement.
'I am Mrs. Helena Begum. My father was a day laborer. We were eight children (six sisters and two brothers) of my father. Can you imagine how painful the situation was? How a family like this can run on one day's laborer’s income. So my elder sister and I departed from our family, and we took shelter in my uncle's house. I had a chance to get some education, but my older sister was quite illiterate. Due to the overburdening of the family, my uncle gave us an early marriage. My husband was an unemployed, illiterate man. He had no work to do. Even he had not a piece of land of his own to stand out.
My grandmother had a straw-made house. She donated it to us. And that was our dream house for conjugal life. Please listen to my life story. My husband started to torture me immediately after one week of our marriage. After a few days, he also stopped giving me any kind of expenses. He was a day laborer at an auto-rice mill and didn't come home regularly. He didn't take any care of me, my activities, or my movement. In his workplace, he was busy with other girls. Sometimes he would come home, and torture me even more for any minor wrong. After one year of our marriage, I produced a female child. This added misery to my life. But at the request of the villagers, my husband then started to provide me with fifty taka (less than one dollar) per week. But the amount was so small that I was not able to provide for my family. I cooked 250 grams of rice once a day, and the rest of the time we suffered from hunger. Suffering was so much that my sweet child didn't get any breast milk? The situation made my child take rice instead of breast milk, but still, the money was fifty taka. When I went to the kitchen and cooked 250 grams of rice, it was not possible for me to take it in my mouth, due to my sister's hungry appearance. How can I take my food while they are suffering from hunger. Then I made a plan and mixed some leafy vegetables with rice, and after it was boiled, every one of us took it.
This was my life!
Due to extreme poverty, I had to work as a maidservant in a neighboring, people's house. In the meantime, I produced my second male child. When the child was in the infant stage Grameen entered in our village. We, some of our neighboring women poor villagers started shomiti (association) after counseling with one another. Since then gradually I started to improve my condition of life by taking micro-credit from Grameen. When Grameen offers me a cellular phone it seems to me as an "Aladdin's Lamp."
After getting a cellular phone, 1 purchased 20 decimals of land from its income. My leafy dream house has now turned into a tin-shed building. My elder daughter Nasima is now reading in college and my second son Rubel is reading in class nine. I am providing their educational expenses. Grameen's mobile phone has brought a change in my lifestyle. To me, it's a magic lamp. This lamp offered me solvency and gave me the certainty of fulfilling my dream and hope of happiness. I pay my respect.to respect Grameen Bank and its Founder Prof. Muhammad Yunus.'
The benefit of ICT worked like a magic lamp in Helena's life. She received the mobile phone in the year 2000, but in the meantime, she paid bills nearabout 3,60,000 taka (6000 US $). So it can easily be estimated how much profit she gained from this phone. Once she was an asset-less, helpless maidservant, but now she is an owner of many valuable assets. Now she is living in a four-room building. Besides this, she has 30 decimal land adjacent to the highway. She is now depositing 700 taka (12 US $) per month in Grameen Bank in a deposit Pension scheme. Once she deposited 80,500 taka (1388 US $) in Grameen Bank, which she later spent to build her house.
Now Helena herself is an entrepreneur. She is providing training in tailoring to distressed women in her village. After being trained by Helena, many poor villagers are becoming self-reliant day by day. Like Helena, some other GB borrowers are doing mobile phone business in the village. Helena's comments in this regard are as follows, "I realize the actual pain of hunger and starvation from my own life. After a serious struggle, I become self-reliant. So if other poor people become self-reliant through struggle, I have nothing to feel jealous about. Instead, I become highly satisfied at their joyous appearance, which I don't get anywhere in the world." Her efforts brought a change in the appearance of the whole Moukhara village. It decreased the number of money-lenders who provided taka-1000 as capital and did usurious business. A soft touch of ICT brought solvency to Helena and turned her into an entrepreneur. There are millions like Helen living in our rural Bangladesh. Some of them get the benefit of ICT, but most of them are suffering from hunger and starvation. When the farmers of other countries in the world are now receiving information about agriculture, and weather forecasts, and exchanging their ideas through the Internet, unfortunately, most of the farmers of our country still do not know even the word "Internet." Information and communication technology for eliminating poverty is still infant stage in our country. But only ICT can bring prosperity to the poor people and can dramatically reduce the rate of poverty in this country. The mobile technology of Grameen created many such examples of Helena those who gained solvency and inspired others to become solvent.
Source: The Independent Date: 5 March, 2004
