DHAKA, Sept 25, 2019 (BSS) – Shahana Yeasmin Joli, a housewife of
Koalipara village in Sadar upazila of Bogura district, is no more poor now.
She has been an inspiration to other women for her diligent work to make
herself a successful entrepreneur. Once who fought with poverty, now she has
been an example of women empowerment by establishing ‘Joli Dairy Firm’.
Joli’s success hasn’t come on a day. Once she didn’t take meal properly.
She along with her children and husband had to starve for many days. Her
husband Ahsan Habib was a day laborer and only one earning person. So he
(Joli’s husband) didn’t run his family smoothly with a small income which
made their life awful. But now Joli’s condition has changed.
Joli’s struggle to become self-employed was not so easy. She had to walk a
long way and face many social hurdles. But any barrier can’t stop Joli on the
way of fulfilling her dream of being self-employed. She forwarded by
overcoming all odds and became successful. She seemed to be a pathfinder to
many as she showed the girl power.
She has set up a bright example of earning money. The housewife took up
the challenge of overcoming initial fear and hurdles and developed a sense of
passion for reaching a height in small business, and now she is running her
family with her income.
But earlier, Joli’s situation was not good. She used to busy thinking that
how she will feed her children.
Joli said an NGO named TMSS help her fulfill the dream of being self-
employed. Once she met its Mohasthan unit’s field level employee Jobeda
Begum. She made Joli a member of the organization of the area.
As per Jobeda’s advice, Joli bought a cow after taking loan of Taka 20,000
from TMSS in 2008. “I used to pay my installment of the loan from my daily
income of selling milk. After giving the loan installment, I also saved some
cash and spent it for my family needs,” Joli said.
Later, Joli applied for loan of Taka one lakh to TMSS in 2009. The TMSS
authorities sanctioned the loan seeing the possibility and courage of Joli.
Then she bought three more cows with that money and got around 15 to 20
liters of milk from her four cows.
Joli first started selling milk to village people. Then she sent milk to
Mohasthan market for selling and earned Taka 400 to 500 daily. Her husband
also helped her sell milks in market.
At last, in 2012, Joli’s dream came true. She set her dairy firm with
financial help from TMSS.
Jobeda said Joli took a total of Taka 7.20 lakh as loan from TMSS from
2008 to 2013. Now, she has 45 cows in her dairy firm, she added.
Joli has set a rare example in the community by not only establishing
herself as an entrepreneur but also by creating jobs for women, Jobeda said.
Joli said “I have bought 50 decimal of land to increase my firm. Now
around 130 liters of milk have been being produced from my farm and my yearly
income is around Taka 10 lakh.”
She said she have employed five workers on permanent and six on part time
basis.
Joli now sees dream to make her farm bigger more and give jobs to more
unemployed youths in her firm.