& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Toys lift women from poverty

Rafayet Ullah Mirdha
Samantha Morshed, a British-born Bangladeshi housewife, has set up an out-of the ordinary industrial unit that operates with 3,200 women across the country and mainly exports children's toys to North and South Americas, Europe, and Australia.
I kithay Bunano, a local handicraft exporting company, has an intricately woven assembly process and is based on trust and relationships, rather than the manufacturing lines that are most common in factories. The beautiful hand-knitted, hand crochet, and hand-embroidered products for children have made their mark with the 'Made in Bangladesh" tag at many destinations.
Samantha, chief executive officer of I Jathay Bu nano, seeks to create rural employment that is good quality, fairly paid, local and flexible. Employment that enhances the employees' life prevents economic migration and family separation.
They specialise in the production of children's toys, produced mostly by women, who traditionally find it difficult to find jobs. Most are physically challenged.
The management of Hathay Bunano supplies the raw materials needed to manufacture the toys, to rural female workers to manufacture the export quality toys.
With their eye on the finish line and constant focus on innovation, Hathay Bunano has witnessed year-on-year export growth of more than 100 percent since its start in 2005.
The company currently boasts production volumes of 10,000 pieces of toys per month.
International Finance Corporation's South Asia Enterprise Development Facility (IFC-SEDF), a member of the World Bank, technically assisted the implementation of the organisation's management information system (MIS).
A key challenge for the organisation remains in the effective cost monitoring system, order placement and resource allocation of the dispersed rural centres.
It is the relentless work practices of the rural women that has supported this non-profit organisation's exports, says company management.
Samantha says Hathay Bunano works closely with the Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP), founded by Valerie Taylor, in providing
employment opportunities for those who have completed rehabilitation at the CRP.
"These women become trainers in our organisation and together we are all working towards changing people's attitude towards the physically challenged in Bangladesh," she says.
"We have physically challenged women working at our head office in Dhaka and at the Dhaka Notun Bazar production and training centre. Our centre in Mymensingh is operated by the physically challenged," Samantha says.
"We have roaming trainers currently on assignment in Khulna, introducing new products and working with CRP on a new production and training centre. This is done exclusively to accommodate the challenged at
the Sylhet centre."
Samantha says the centre is often a rented structure, built of tin sheds, from someone within the community. “Mains electricity is not essential -- we can use solar or battery power for lighting and fans," she adds.
She says Hathay Bunano is a member of the Ecota Fair Trade Forum, the body for Fair Trade in Bangladesh.
"We are currently working towards SA8000 certification to ensure social accountability, in a joint project with the IFC-SEDF and hope to achieve it early next year."
The principles of Fair Trade, which Hathay Bunano has been following, include, transparency and accountability, gender equality, opportunity for economically disadvantaged groups, consider-
ation of the environment, capacity building for workers, promotion of fair trade, payment of fair wages, restrain from child labour and safe working conditions.
Speaking to The Daily Star, Samantha says her export of toys has been going well, even in the face of the ongoing global financial recession.
"We are still receiving orders as before from the foreign buyers even in times of the financial recession," she says.
"Activities that promote gender and women's empowerment is ar the core of what needs to be done to remain competitiveness," says Deepak Adhikary, deputy general manager and head of IFC-SEDF, Bangladesh. Nepal and Bhutan.
reefat@thedailystar.net