Standing with ‘Just Girls’ in Bangladesh

Diwilara learned to sew through a community-based program to promote sustainable health goals and economic security for people in Bangladesh, including mothers and their children.

One Day’s Wages — a group that supports various causes through matching donations — in partnership with World Renew and other groups helps people such as Dilwara who are living in high-poverty areas of the country to achieve more abundant lives.

After learning to be a seamstress through a local self-help group, Diwilara trained her daughter, Mafusa, to sew. They now run a shop where they create beautiful saris and kurtas. Saris are colorful, draped garments, while kurtas are loose, collarless shirts, some reaching all the way to the feet.

“Today, Mafusa is a young woman benefiting from new economic opportunity and a young mother instilling in her daughter the same strength and love of beauty passed down to her by Diwilara,” says World Renew on a 4 Just Girls website offering information on its work, in collaboration with One Day’s Wages, in Bangladesh.

Mafusa’s story is one of three highlighting the transformational work of World Renew and its community organizing programs in Bangladesh. Also featured is Rozina, chairwoman of a People’s Institution, which works to assist several smaller self-help groups in a specific region so that their  participants can bring positive changes to their community.

“Rozina assists mothers in proper feeding, nutrition, and weighing of their newborns and consults with families about care for their differently abled children,” says the website.

The third person featured is Fajima, a ninth grader who has joined with her classmates to challenge the tradition of removing young women from school so that they can be married. Her goal and that of others is for young women to get an education and join with adults to advance community development opportunities.

They educate “their larger community on the downfalls [and other negative aspects] of childhood marriage,” says the website. “Fajima has boldly stood for the rights of girls, and now it’s time for us to stand boldly with Fajima.”

These three young women are featured as part of the Just Girls campaign, a World Renew effort to raise $200,000 by Dec. 24 to help 25,000 people in Bangladesh. One Day’s Wages has pledged to match donations dollar for dollar up to $100,000, the largest match the organization has ever offered.

“One Day's Wages supports humanitarian work around the world and has been a partner with World Renew for years, supporting multiple World Renew initiatives by offering a match to the funds we raise for our campaigns,” said Katy Johnson, a World Renew content specialist.

Bangladesh, in particular, is a country where girls and women are often forgotten or left behind, added Johnson. They are sometimes taken out of school as young teenagers to get married and do not receive proper care and supervision during pregnancy, or labor, or in the early years of a child's life.

“Women in Bangladesh often struggle to access the education, training, and support that would allow them to help themselves and their families journey out of extreme poverty,” said Johnson.

“This is a critical need — not just for women but for the entire country. World Renew has learned that when women and girls receive the support they need, entire communities get healthier.”

The Just Girls campaign began with the goal of helping nearly 8,500 girls, but it isn’t ending there. Because World Renew seeks to help entire communities journey toward security, the funds from this campaign will ultimately go toward assisting 25,000 people in various aspects of World Renew's programming.

Funds will establish 399 self-help groups; train nearly 180 community health volunteers; equip 74 people to work specifically for peace; train 15 fire rescue volunteers; educate six volunteer teachers, and support 15 farmers who can model sustainable agricultural practices.

World Renew has a team on the ground in Bangladesh that offers the program training, support, oversight, and accountability to a number of partners active in their local communities who are implementing the World Renew asset-based community development model for responding to poverty, said Johnson.

Bangladesh has many needs, but World Renew is committed to do what it can, in the name of Christ, to help heal wounds and bolster people’s lives in a variety of ways.

“Through our programs, girls and women get opportunities they wouldn't normally have,” said Kohima Daring, World Renew’s Bangladesh country director. “They are learning leadership skills, learning to read and write, to carry out income-generation activities, to help in decision making in their families, to have better health.”

With help from World Renew and its partners, girls are gaining dignity and getting respect from the community.

“Instead of [treating them as] ‘just girls,’ we work with them so that they know confidently that they have value and worth and can contribute to society,” said Daring.

World Renew also works with husbands and boys and young men so that they also recognize the potential of women in their communities to help to bring about change.

“It is exciting to see girls and women flourishing — speaking up and leading meetings, running businesses, knowing and practicing good health, serving in their communities and helping others. Their eyes are big now as they see all they are empowered to do,” said Daring.

 For more information on the Just Girls effort, click here.