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Aim of Nari Jibon
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A Brief History of Nari
Jibon (C. March 2005-)
Kathryn Ward, 27 Dec 05
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With a new system and temporary office for two months, NJP
opened with new staff, teachers (including three Fulbright
Fellows), and structure and a philosophy of thinking outside
the box of women’s work. Funding has come from Kathryn Ward,
Executive Directors and her mother and nominally from
student admission fees and donations. Staff committed to
doing outreach and connecting students with possible jobs.
We urged staff to develop their own English literacy and
computers and tailoring. The tailoring teacher promised to
teach sewing, cutting, and business skills rather than just
sewing for garment factories. A former student of the ED
joined as a volunteer computer teacher. Several computers
had broadband connections to broaden students’ computer
experiences.
Students and staff committed to office-class rules including
nametags, time schedules, and class attendance. We tried to
develop four month study-work-business plans with these
students. All students and staff wore name tags-ids, signed
in and out of office premises. Other students paid a flat
100 taka fee to attend on to four classes. Students received
written materials in computers and English and/or materials
and goods for Bangla and tailoring.
Students responded to our outreach and within a few weeks we
had enrolled 50-70 students. We added a Bangla teacher and
office aya to address some students’ illiteracy in Bangla
and the growing number of children who came with their
mothers.
Some new staff arrangements included four leikhapora-chakri
[LPC] (work-study) staff members whose primary tasks were to
acquire literacy in English or bangla and/or
computers-office work or tailoring AND gain practical
experience in either office or tailoring work. For example,
some of the LPC women served as receptionists, did office
related tasks, and/or fieldwork. Other women needed basic
Bangla literacy. These positions sought to address the
issues of funding for transitional training where the
students received funding for studies but also for practical
work experience.
Also some staff gained Bangla literacy for the first time,
including the office aya and service staff. Previously the
office aya had worked in garment factories for 17 years and
never had the opportunity to learn how to read and write
Bangla before she came to Nari Jibon. She now understands
some English. Another service staff member also learned how
to read and write Bangla and developed her tailoring skills.
She has been reassigned to the tailoring room to further
develop her skills. Other staff attended weekly English
classes and had staff designated time for computer practice
and education.
Our volunteer computer teacher had limited access to
computers at her private university and hostel. Over time,
she continued to hone her computer skills through practice,
teaching students and participated in computer hardware and
graphics classes.
Office staffs have included first time service holders. They
have acquired English and computer skills, accounts and
filing experience, and maintaining student and staff
registers and inventories. They also have acquired skills in
meeting and greeting both Bangladeshis and foreigners who
work in and visit the office.
However, we soon discovered certain levels of resistance and
dealt with problems from the Bangladeshi education system
that generated limited skills in English and studies for
both students and staff. Demands on staff time meant limited
time and energy to attend classes. Most of our students had
second or third division marks, but their education ranged
from class six or less to SSC/HSC pass or college and
university. Some students came for one or two classes and
disappeared with materials. Other students
resisted/challenged our insistence on English literacy
before studying computers; we required at least a reading,
speaking, and writing level of English before computer
study. Although some claimed this literacy, upon written and
oral tests, they could barely communicate in English and the
computer teacher complained about the students’ progress.
Finally, some students had become habituated to laisse-faire
attitudes and classes at Sathi office, other NGO stipend
programmes, and resisted our insistence on English, testing
of computer skills, and need for practice and study of their
lessons in English and computers. Or likewise we insisted
that tailoring students achieve literacy in Bangla along
with their tailoring studies. Although some of the
leikhapora women were very enthusiastic initially about
their assignments, some of the office-track women switched
back and forth between computers and tailoring. After four
months, they ended up with few new skills if any beyond some
Bangla literacy, understanding of some English, tailoring,
and some office experience.
In May 2005, we moved back to the nearby original Sathi
office, which provided a bit more room, light, and space
along with potable water and reliable electricity. We also
decided to charge 100tk per class to discourage casual
students. Needy students received a waiver or paid a lower
amount. Many of our students came from nearby slums and
schools, including college and university students on summer
vacation. Outreach workers visited local computer and
tailoring shops, factories, and sex worker hangouts to
discuss Nari Jibon.
One student who had moved into a leikhpora-chakri position
almost immediately found a job with a related NGO. We added
two more leikapora students, including one office and one
tailoring track student. Further, in late summer, we started
offering a weekly business class meeting, but some students
resisted developing small plans with limited taka. Instead
they insisted on large extravagant plans and thought that
the ED would provide them with money and/or loans. Other
students thought that we would provide work…any sort of good
work…but the ED wanted to break out of the usual NGO mode of
hiring fieldworkers and programme, graduates. She insisted
that the success of Nari Jibon consisted of women finding
work outside of Nari Jibon.
Further Nari Jibon could serve to launder assorted
identities and serve as a bridge to work. For example, women
garment and sex workers faced uncertain futures after a
certain age. Many sex workers had become fieldworkers for
HIV-AIDs programmes, but lost this work when grants ended
and had no new skills. Once they entered Nari Jibon, they
became Nari Jibon women with different skills and practical
experience. Many garment workers faced threats from factory
closures owing to changes in trade agreements. At the same
time, garment and other workers who provided much if not all
support of their families needed some transitional money to
learn alternative skills. We estimated that full-time women
could learn new skills in about four months. We also
approached some NGOs known to hire women as fieldworkers to
provide these stipends (at a rate of 4000 taka or higher
than average garment salaries), but only one agreed and at a
minimal level. We had to pay for medical treatment of these
students, who also required extra attention because they had
no literacy in Bangla and had extensive experience only in
brothels, street trade and/or NGO fieldwork. They also
lacked safety nets when they or their children became ill.
When the NGO ended their stipends/conveyance, their studies
ended.
We also had resistance from some of the women’s
leaders—largely illiterate-- who seemed threatened by the
idea that their members could learn alternative skills,
might reduce the leaders’ claims for poor downtrodden women,
and did not receive any interest from the project. The
leaders called meetings during the women’s classes and
programmes and/or keep the member students working on unpaid
projects rather than letting them come to classes. In turn,
when these groups received grants, none of their members had
the skills or literacy to work on the grants.
We also faced some scheduling problems as students tried to
attend four different classes so we tried to insist on
either English-computer tracks or Bangla-tailoring tracks.
Given only five computers, we also had to stagger computer
schedules where students learned Microsoft word followed by
Excel, Access, and PowerPoint. Some students insisted on
drop-in classes, which we could only provide on Fridays.
We also had challenges of women dropping out owing to
‘family’ problems, especially if their mother or father
became ill or lost their jobs. Other students dropped out
owing to their own illnesses. Some husbands and guardians
made the students drop after a certain time period of
learning—enough so they could teach their own children.
Other students came during school vacations. Still others
dropped out for work. In some cases when we insisted on
English class attendance AND computer studies, some students
refused to continue.
Still other women found work in offices, but quit owing to
family problems (health of family members) or misbehavior of
male colleagues. These problems suggest more training on
handling workplace issues, but also educating family members
about women workers and consequences of such work patterns.
In tailoring, some students who had finished their studies
declined offers for tailoring shop work, but preferred to
set up businesses in their homes. Some tailoring shops have
refused to hire women tailors, while other shops have
offered jobs to our students. Or students and guardians felt
that such work would bring unmarried women into contact with
men. So they waited for the ED to provide sewing machines
for students. (She declined). We encouraged the women and
their families to develop savings programmes or seek urban
micro-credit.
By end of July, the ED returned to USA and she closed the
original LPC women, one of whom went into modeling and
clothes, another proposed to start a vegetable-food
wholesale business, and another had no plan at all after
four months. Another office track woman tried for fieldwork
jobs, but had acquired few new skills in English and/or
computers.
At the same time the last LPC woman continued her studies in
tailoring, bangla and business classes. She also did
fieldwork to tailoring shops and assisted in the tailoring
room. Six months later, she left as a full-fledged tailor,
with savings and business plan, and a new sewing machine
(provided by the ED).
Meanwhile some of our other students in computers-offices
began to seek work and found work in offices and sales. We
hired one of our better students as office receptionist.
In July some of the more advanced computer students (Word
and Excel classes finished) asked for graphics classes,
which we provided. Another teacher started computer
repair-hardware-assembly classes. All English and computer
students registered for and started using email. We have
taken our best students to computer fairs and programmes.
The project coordinator, Saleha Parveen, also took several
students to a business planning workshop by Women for Women
and developed her own business class, which has met one day
per week and included most office staff and some male
students. Students developed business plans, budgets, and
some have implemented these plans such as a food mess, pen
sales, phone shop, and a computer repair shop.
From March 2005 to December 2005, 218 women student had
registered for assorted classes at Nari Jibon. We have
stressed that every student develops a realistic plan for
their education and future. We have three volunteer English
teachers, four computer teachers (two basic, one repair, and
a new graphics-website), two tailoring teachers, one Bangla
teacher, office manager, receptionist, office aya-fieldworker,
and one service staff. A new project is the Nari Jibon
website/domain: www.narijibon.com where women students will
learn how to set up and maintain a website. They will also
receive training in taking photographs and generating
articles for a web magazine on Nari Jibon. We hope to
install wireless broadband internet in the near future. We
also started a research cell with staff from the ED’s
longitudinal women workers’ project, which should generate
work opportunities for fieldwork, office work, scanning,
surveys, and so forth. We have instituted meetings with
students and guardians every three months to discuss the
students’ and guardians’ plans. In the near future, we hope
to open a driving school-programme for women leading to real
licenses. We have added three new LPC women: two in office
work (recent HSC grad; older woman who has been outside of
work for 10 years) and one in tailoring (formerly garment
worker). Two additional tailoring women students are
receiving partial support, and as more funding becomes
available they will become LPC students. However, the vast
majority of NJ students receive no conveyance or stipends
from the project.
Class results (some students took multiple classes):
Computers:
Enrolled: 74
Currently running: 32
Left for: studies: 14
Jobs: 9 (garments, office work, NGO work)
Family probs.: 7
Computer repair: 12 (since August)
Running 10
Computer graphics: 7 (since August)/website since December
Tailoring: 109 (since March); students learn to make 32
items
Running: 32 (17 half-finished)
Finished: 50; 6 started own business
Bangla: 63 (since April): letters, reading, math
15 running (regular): three class levels
5 finished
English: (since March) three class levels [English 1, 1.5 &
2]
50 students (three class levels)
Business: (since August)
Running: 27
Business: 7 (clothes sale, pens, phone shop, computer
repair, food-catering mess)
Challenges:
1. Regular & sincere attendance by students
2. More transitional funding for women moving out of
previous work (work-study, equipment such as sewing machines
and computers, business capital)
3. More staff outreach to employers (business, NGOs) about
Nari Jibon, what skills they need, and promotion of our
students
4. More follow-up-tracking of our students
5. Capital and employment generation in spin-off businesses,
such as cyber cafes, repair, copy-composition shops,
tailoring shops, and research work
6. Educational and motivational efforts with guardians,
husbands, family members, and workplaces about the
importance of women’s education and work and respectful
treatment of women at work and traveling to and from work
7. Registration as a trust and for foreign donations with
GOB
8. More class room space, sewing machines, and computers for
practice and classes.";
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