Just another week in Bangladesh.

Seems like another week has flown by. It's been another busy week for us and a particularly important week for the business.

This week we did further detailed planning to our business plan for this year and due to certain circumstances arising we now have quite a significant amount of goods to produce and not a lot of time to do it, so we had to adjust our business plan to see how we could most effectively get the goods to market by the deadline as well as considering long term recruitment, investment and the like - so a pretty important and busy week.

As you can imagine it's been all systems go on the workshop as the prototypes are finalised and the materials are being chosen, which meant a few late nights in the office for us (more particularly for Andy).

Whilst this has been going on I have been doing further research and policy-writing on how our business model fits with Fairtrade and what we have to do to comply with the many many requirements. I had a good meeting with the local Fairtrade forum director, who gave me some useful insights into what we could do to ensure we are complying with the relevant standards.

I have also been contintuing my research into potential shelter homes for our trafficking survivors to come back to from India (they are currently in a half way house waiting to return). I went to a great centre in a village about 1.5 hours outside Dhaka, which is a purpose-built village for vulnerable women and their children. They have a school, farmland, fishing lakes, vocational training, a psycho-social building and income generating activities - the whole package. What was so good about it was the holistic feel to the centre. For example, most of the food consumed by the beneficiaries is grown on site and some of the waste is used in their income-generating activities. For example, the onion shells are used to make dyes for the paper and woven fabrics they produce - how wonderful!

I have also visited a shelter home specifically for trafficking survivors but also for children who have been victims of sexual exploitation. Whilst the centre was great I found it really upsetting and deeply challenging. As I walked round and spent time with the young people they were just like any other normal child - playing with toys, studying, running around and then my mind kept coming back to the fact that these children may have been raped, trafficked or sexually exploited. Such happy innocent faces masking a whole world of horrific injustice - it grieves me to think that children can be treated in such a way and worse stilll to know that most of their families won't want to or won't be able to take them back.

Some of the children performed a song and dance that nearly reduced me to tears because there were these beautiful young children perfoming songs about the kind of lives they should have had but will never be able to experience. One of the folk songs they did talked about flying like a bird in the garden free from cares. This particular song / dance was performed by one girl, who can't have been more than 12 years old who had been raped only a few months earlier! Thinking about it now as I write is really stirring my emotions.

Anyway, besides these visits we've both enjoyed the new challenges we're facing at work, especially now the projects are both really taking off.

Outside of work we've also had a great week. We spent a lot of time on Saturday around our local Bazaar (market), lapping up the atmosphere and playing the haggling game with the shopkeepers. They love to haggle here and I think they feel a bit cheated if we haven't haggled. I must admit Andy's much better at it than I am and much more enters into the spirit of it. It's not long before I get bored of haggling and just agree to the price but Andy drives a much harder bargain!

So, after an exhausting bazaar trip and then we rewarded ourselves with lunch at an art cafe near us and a much-needed lassi YUMMM!

In the evening we went to the bible study group that we attend every week, which was really good. I think the locals appreciate having us around and we certainly love their company. They are so hospitable and every time we go we learn what it means to have a servant-heart.

I think that about sums up our week. We have of course done the usual church-going on Friday and study group on Monday and Tuesday, so we're keeping ourselves busy. This week we even managed to squeeze in a game of pool and some toffee and apple crumble at the Bagha club, which was a lovely way to relax.

So, all in all a great week and we looking forward to the new challenges that this week will bring.

Much love

Nic and Andy x

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