When you buy a wonderful worms World Gift, you will help to provide worms and training in vermicomposting for families in rural Bangladesh.
Your donations will help reach vulnerable people fleeing war, poverty and natural disasters.
Christine chatting with Hawa, a farmer and mother
Christine Allen, our Director, recently visited our partners and projects in Bangladesh. She shared her reflections on the trip, the inspiring people she met, and seeing the impact of your donations first-hand.
CAFOD has been working alongside partners in Bangladesh for over 40 years, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to visit the country for the first time and see the incredible work of our local partners and their communities standing up to the injustices of poverty and the climate crisis.
Seeing first-hand the incredible work your donations make possible was deeply inspiring, as were the many courageous, compassionate and dedicated people I met. Let me share some of their stories with you.
Obayedul tending to his floating garden
You might remember Obayedul and Bayezid from our Lent Appeal. They are farmers whose land was flooded and unusable for most of the year. But thanks to your support they received training to grow food in special floating gardens, so they have something to eat and sell all year round.
I had the chance to visit them and see their incredible floating gardens for myself. I told them just how many of you had been moved by their story, and the incredible support you have shown. Bayezid was delighted to see his photo in our appeal posters!
Seeing the gardens myself, and the vegetables Obayedul and Bayezid have been able to grow, really drove home the importance of your donations. But what inspired me most was hearing them tell me in their own words how much they appreciate the work of our incredible partners. They stand alongside the community day in and day out, providing training, support or simply a friendly face to talk to.
Hawa and her family
Another really interesting project I visited involved the use of vermicompost – organic compost made by worms – turning barren, salty or waterlogged soil into fertile farmland. There I met Hawa and her family.
When Hawa’s husband got sick and could no longer work, she needed to find another way to feed her family. But the soil on her land was not fit for growing crops. She reached out to our partners, and they told her that she would receive earthworms.
She admitted to me that she was completely disheartened when she heard this. Of all things, why earthworms? What good would they do?
But her daughter Talisma*, a science student, had already learned about vermicompost from her textbooks. Encouraged by her daughter, Hawa decided to give it a try. She received hands-on training on how to make compost from cow dung, and our partners provided her with cash to build a shed for vermicompost production. She added some of her own savings and got to work.
The results were remarkable. Now her garden is thriving, and she’s reinvested the money she’s made into making even more vermicompost, which she sells to neighbours, and even further afield. She sells so much, we saw a van arrive to take her compost to market! The money she makes from selling this compost has paid for her children’s education. She has even been able to hire a private tutor, and proudly tells me her daughter recently won a medal for debating.
As we stood together, Hawa waved a hand across her flourishing crops, her home, and her family. “All this,” she said, “is only possible because of this support.”
I was struck at the sheer determination of this small woman. She has put into practice everything she has learned with hard work and dedication, and the pride when she looked at her daughter brought a lump to my throat.
The shelter lead for Caritas Bangladesh gives a presentation in Cox’s Bazaar
I also had the chance to visit Cox’s Bazaar, where more than a million Rohingya refugees have settled.
The people living there have suffered immense violence and trauma, fleeing genocide. Your donations have been helping since day one, allowing our partners to provide emergency supplies and shelter to people who have lost their homes, possessions and jobs.
And even now, nearly 10 years after the crisis began, our partners from Caritas Bangladesh are still helping – and they're not just providing the basics.
What was most heartening to me was seeing how much love and dignity are a key part of what our partners do. They're about trying to help people make their voices heard and regain a sense of empowerment, a sense of control in a situation where control has been taken away from them.
This is a crisis which might not be on the television screens anymore, but thanks to your support our partners are still helping people. That is a sign of hope.
Towards the end of the trip we had a bit of downtime with some of our partners. From the beach, we watched the sunset, and the last few fishing boats bringing their day’s catch ashore. I shared some reflections on what had moved me so much about the trip – the people I had met, the hard work of our partners and communities, and most of all, on my part, the incredible, vital impact of your donations I had witnessed first-hand. The partners then shared some of their own reflections with me.
Jamal, an extremely skilled and dedicated member of the Caritas team, thanked CAFOD for standing with Caritas Barisal in supporting communities at a grassroots level, encouraging them to forge their own futures and thrive on their own terms. There are so many issues that the communities have to face: the climate, the soil conditions, the social limitations that women face. Making this work sustainable by helping people take ownership of the projects they are involved in is key.
He said: “We have the opportunity to work with the most vulnerable people and we are grateful to CAFOD for the support that enables us to help.” I was so moved by that sentiment.
Francis, the Region Director of Caritas Barisal, thanked us for the visit and the fact that we have seen the picture of the social reality of the region. He told me he appreciates very much the relationship between CAFOD and Caritas Bangladesh – a relationship made possible by your donations.
Finally, Remi spoke. He works in Caritas’ central office as Director of Finance & Admin and doesn’t often get to see the projects himself. “We bring hope and dignity,” he said, “as well as an improvement in the living standards of people.”
Hope and dignity. I think that says it all. That is the true impact of your support.
Your donations help people: Obayedul, Bayezid, Hawa, Talisma, and the many other people and families I had the great privilege to meet, and many thousands of other families I did not get the chance to meet. Your gifts are helping them take their futures into their own hands, and see the plans they have made for themselves and their families come to fruition.
I have seen the impact of your gifts first-hand in my time in Bangladesh – and I know that impact goes so much further, helping our neighbours all around the world.
*Talisma is a pseudonym
