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International Women's Day - Salma grooms her own garden
Machizo | Vision | Mission | Contacts | Plans | New Media Activism | International Women's Day
Parvez Babul Salma (33) can practise her due rights now, and has become an influential woman in her community in Zoinkathi village in Patuakhali. She has become the key to ensuring food security for her family. Through homestead food production, which is supported by Helen Keller International, Salma cultivates more than 20 varieties of year-round vegetables in her homestead model farm, and rears poultry too. Some of the varieties of vegetables at her garden are: pui shak, kolmi shak, palong shak, tomato, carrot, all rich sources of vitamin A that helps to keep her and her family healthy.
Salma and her family members consume vegetables in every meal everyday, which is why they are healthy now, and know that vegetables prevent malnutrition and many diseases because they do not get sick as often as they did before.
The local people buy seedlings from Salma for their own homestead vegetable gardens, and the money helps Salma meet her household expenses and her children's school fees.
Salma motivates her neighbours, community people, as well as her relatives, to follow her and benefit through homestead food production. She dreams of educating her daughter Ankhi (3) like her sons, and is determined not to agree to an early marriage for her.
She is aware of the negative impact of early marriage, especially of girls, as she was a victim herself because of her family's poverty. Salma has learnt also about the special nutritional needs of growing girls, pregnant women, lactating mothers and other members of her family.
I talk to her about International Women's Day, and she remarks while watering her garden: "Poor women should get the opportunity to earn money like me. Because earning makes them self-reliant and able to make decisions, and helps prevent violence against them."
Salma recalls the days before her involvement in homestead food production, when she had no alternative but to take low quality foods only once or twice a day because there was not enough for her.
She talks of her days of sorrow and hardship but quickly smiles, realizing her success with homestead food production. She is now the main decision-maker of her household, and even her husband and mother in-law ask her advice on whom to vote for in national elections!
Salma's husband, Enayet, earns some money working as a day labourer, but Salma earns more than her husband, with a minimum of 2000 taka per month, through selling vegetables and seedlings from her garden.
When talking to her husband Enayet, he smiled with joy and said, "I am proud of my wife Salma, and happy to honour the decisions she takes for the sake of our family. I was unaware before, but now I realize that my wife has the same rights like me."
Salma is planning to make a big poultry farm and buy a television, and land to build living rooms with her savings. Rezaul Karim, Technical Officer (Horticulture) of Helen Keller International (HKI) Bangladesh, who supervises this program said: "Salma got free training from Helen Keller International on year-round vegetable cultivation, how to prepare and use organic fertilizer and on poultry rearing. She established her village model farm at the household with our technical assistance under the Jibon O Jibika project. Like other members of our program -- we provided Salma free seeds of vegetables and 20 ducks to rear. Salma worked in her garden side by side with household tasks and, thus, has been able to become an exceptionally self-reliant and empowered woman. So, I am impressed working with her as well as other members of our project," concluded Rezaul.
Though Salma is illiterate, and can only sign her name, she is still a role model by being a teacher for nutrition education through the homestead food production program. Because she is promoting good eating habits to prevent vitamin A and iron deficiency in her community, even the union council chairman and the local people publicly appreciate Salma.
Listening to Salma's success story, I appreciate her optimism and see her as an ideal character and motivator who represents the poor disadvantaged women in Bangladesh. Like Salma, many women and mothers greatly contribute to building healthy families, and guide us to reach the goal of preventing malnutrition and uprooting poverty (also "to send poverty to the museum" as stated by Dr. Muhammad Yunus).
In a recently published bulletin (No. 4, 2006), Helen Keller International (HKI) highlighted that the prevalence of malnutrition in rural Bangladesh is among the highest in the world. 46 percent of children under five years of age were underweight, and 36 percent of mothers were chronically energy deficient. Micro-nutrient deficiencies affect more than 50 percent of children and women of reproductive age (According to HKI's survey in 2005).
The findings of the Homestead Food Production Program have demonstrated that integrating poultry-rearing with homestead gardening has additional benefits beyond enhancing the production and consumption of nutritious foods.
Homestead Food Production helps communities establish homestead gardens and to cultivate fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin A and other micro nutrients. Eggs, poultry and other animal foods, which support the body's ability to utilize micro-nutrients, are also integrated into the program.
Families become stronger and healthier through better nutrition. Households practicing improved gardening yield surplus food that is often sold for additional income, enabling families to access health care, education and savings.
Additional income gave them better access to high quality animal foods, and provided opportunities for them to save money for other expenses, including education for their children. The document clarified that women's decision-making on household expenditure positively influences the nutritional status of their children, which contributes to the reduction of malnutrition among both women and children.
So, given the positive impact of the Homestead Food Production Program on improving the nutritional status of women and children in Bangladesh, as well as reducing poverty, this program should be expanded and scaled up for vulnerable households.
"Investments in homestead food production have proven to give huge returns to support and empower the most valuable resource in Bangladesh -- women who work tirelessly for their families -- no greater return can be guaranteed than investing in women," concluded Chantell Witten, Country Director of Helen Keller International, Bangladesh.
On the way back to Dhaka from Salma's home, an appropriate quote of the great Helen Keller reminded me of Salama's winning against the odds: "Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." I wish that this was true for all the poor, the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, especially children, girls, and women in our country and around the world.
Parvez Babul is Information and Advocacy Officer of Helen Keller International, Bangladesh.
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