Once every week at 9 am in the morning in Banaripara in Barisal division of Southern Bangladesh, twenty women and a few children make a beeline for Khairunissa’s house. BERDO’s community worker Fatema waits there with textbooks and public awareness leaflets. For one hour, they talk on different issues – health, education, prenatal care, pregnancy-related complications, hygiene, latest legislations for disabled individuals and their budding business initiatives, started with micro-credit received from BERDO. In between, they also pay their weekly instalments. Fatema takes the lead in most of the discussions, relays information contained in the leaflets and shows them slides. At other times she acts as a facilitator. The women chip in – raise their problems and ask questions. They are all part of a Self Help Group, one that they have christened ‘Shiuli’. At 10 am, the women troop out of Khairunissa’s house and head back home to attend to their daily chores, while Fatema heads to Jahanara’s house for the next meeting – this time with a group that calls itself ‘Beli’.

There are thirty such SHGs in Banaripara consisting of BERDO members. A group usually consists of eighteen to twenty-five members – both able-d and differently able-d. Disabled minors, who cannot be full-time members, are often accompanied by their mothers. Each group has a President, a Secretary and a Treasurer, each of whom is chosen by consensus from among the members of the group for a period of one year. The one-hour meeting comes as a welcome relief to women who find little time away from the grind of household duties. It serves as a platform where they learn life skills. It not only allows them access to a little credit to start an income-generating initiative of their own but also gauges their progress and helps them out with business knowhow from time to time.

The response of the womenfolk at the meeting I attended was very encouraging indeed. ‘Shiuli’ is only nine months old but all members send their children to school. Newly-weds have begun to understand the merits of contraception and pregnant women that of skilled midwifery. Four women from ‘Shiuli’ have taken loans from BERDO and repayment rates of the group are a 100%. One of them, the widowed mother of a paraplegic child, has started a betel-nut shop. She does not earn enough just yet to support her family but is hopeful that her shop will eventually help her tide over financial difficulties. The SHG model has been used the world over and while BERDO’s Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programme is not a panacea to all the troubles that plague women and the disabled in rural Bangladesh, it has allowed them to get a foot in the door, afforded them a straw and if its success is anything to go by, it is definitely not the last one.