Women Helping Women in Bangladesh

Women Helping Women in Bangladesh

It is dawn on a December morning in Bangladesh. The sun is rising in a luminous red ball over fields of yellow mustard flowers. Chickens scratch and peck under tall banana trees, their leaves heavy with dew. A dog barks at the empty sky, and, in the distance, the plaintive call of Muslim prayer undulates along the cool, moist breeze.

Outside the thatch and bamboo huts that dot the roadside, squatting women fan breakfast fires. The rising smoke sways and mingles with clouds of fog that hang over tiny ponds and paddies.

Along the road is a sign, Banchte Shekha: Development Program for Women and Children. A red arrow points across a small pond to a compound of bamboo buildings where a group of women is gathering for breakfast. Banchte Shekha founder Angela Gomes-a tall, vibrant women in her early forties-laughs and chats with the women as she helps serve a meal of porridge, chapatis, and papaya.

Many of these women have spent the night at Banchte Shekha-a safe haven for them from an abusive husband or in-laws. For others, Banchte Shekha-which is Bangla for "learning to live"-is part of a longer journey, a first step toward self-sufficiency and dignity. For all of them, Banchte Shekha offers hope, because one woman believed that poor village women could have better lives, even when they didn't believe it themselves