Bangladesh's agent of change

Bangladesh's agent of change
KAVITA CHARANJI

Courage, perseverance and fortitude are attributes that Angela Gomes, a development worker, has in plenty. As founder and executive director of the Jessore (Bangladesh)-based NGO Banchte Shekha (Bangla for `Learning to Survive') she has waged many battles against vested interests and religious leaders, and today she has stilled the voices of numerous critics who have relentlessly slung mud at her. Winner of the 1999 Magsaysay Award for community development and development leadership, she has gained international recognition not only for herself but her 20-year-old organisation.

``I never though that I would get the Magsaysay Award,'' she says. ``At the award ceremony in Manila, I burst into tears because my work has involved a tremendous amount of struggle. It was a big honour for me and has increased my responsibilities. It means that I have to work harder in the interests of the deprived women of our society.''

Banchte Shekha strives to improve the quality of life of 2 lakh poor rural women (somedirectly and others indirectly) in over 500 villages in and around Jessore. The mission of the organisation is to empower the women through social development work such as group formation, granting loans, legal aid, legal education and mediation, adolescent and adult education, family health aid and income generating activities such as poultry farming, pisciculture, handicrafts, sericulture and apiculture.

Gomes quotes several case studies to show how Banchte Shekha has given women a greater voice and enabled them to speak out against injustices such as torture, abuse and humiliation. She cites the example of Zahida, a poor woman from Noorpur in Jessore district, whose husband married a second time. Unwilling to put up with Zahida's constant complaints, one day he broke her hand, slit her wrist and cheek and cut her breast. Her parents brought her to Banchte Shekha on the verge of death. The organisation's staff, including Gomes, took her to hospital. After her recovery, she lived in the Jessore office ofBanchte Shekha since her husband had warned her of dire consequences if she returned to the village.

The Union Parishad chairperson of the district was reluctant to speak out against Zahida's husband because he was afraid of losing the men's vote at the elections. Eventually, encouraged by Banchte Shekha, Zahida filed a case five months ago in the Jessore Criminal Court. She also met with the Superintendent of Police, Jessore, and told him about the horrendous incident. ``If Banchte Shekha had not supported her, Zahida would never have gathered the strength or courage to speak out against her husband,'' says Gomes.

Gomes's own life has been full of trials and tribulations. Diagnosed with ovarian cancer two and a half years ago, she looks back on her difficult early years with some detachment. Born in Malla, Gazipur, in Bangladesh in 1952, her father was a farmer while her mother was a homemaker. The seventh of four brothers and five sisters, the family wanted her to marry early. However, she had set herheart on getting an education. On her own, she contacted some boarding schools. She was finally admitted to the Sacred Heart School, Jessore, and earned her keep with community development work.

``At the age of 13, when I was studying with the nuns, I clearly saw the inequality between the sexes, especially among the poor. I hated the fact that women were abused and humiliated and I wanted to do something for them -- particularly widows, divorcees and single women,'' she recalls. Her real work began in 1975, after she had taken a bachelor's degree in economics, history and geography.

However, many years of painful struggle lay ahead. She had no office or educated workers. She would visit the villages in and around Jessore and find herself surrounded by needy and destitute women who received poor wages for their work and did not have the resources to feed themselves and their families. To get her work of income generation for women established and to give it official recognition, she set up Banchte Shekhain 1980.

But the establishment of an organisation did not make the work any easier. As a single woman and a non-Muslim, she raised the hackles of numerous people. A case in point is Banchte Shekha's sericulture programme. To enable poor rural women to earn a livelihood Gomes, along with many women, spent 22 days planting mulberry trees on both sides of a railway track near Jessore. However, troublemakers destroyed the plants soon after because they did not approve of the idea of women organising themselves.

Gomes recalls many such incidents, when her gender and her religion got in the way. She had to assume names like Anju, Anjali and Anjumara to gain acceptance in Hindu and Muslim communities. To avoid speculation about her marital status, she initially said that she was married to a man who had gone abroad to study, and that she had two children back in the village. When this failed to assuage society, she covered her head and learned to read the namaz.

Despite all that, Gomes was accused of beinganti-Islam, of converting women to Christianity and packing her organisation with Christians and relatives. ``That is a 100 per cent lie. Of my 150 staffers, very few are Christians,'' she says. Now that she and Banchte Shekha have gained greater acceptance, the critics have been silenced. Probably one of the major hindrances to her work was the imam of Jessore, whom she now affectionately calls Gani Kuri Chacha.

``I was able to make him realise that I was not an enemy and quoted several ayats (quotations) and surs (prayers) from the Quran to convince him that widowed women needed the support of the community and their families.''

Her persistence paid off. Kuri Chacha now invites her to stay in his village home at Enaitpur. He gave her his own land to dig a tank, and offered baskets and spades for the project. Now that the value of her work has been recognised both nationally and internationally, she is unafraid to say that she is Christian and single.

Having won the Magsaysay Award, she feels that herdetractors will have to find adequate justification before they can point fingers at her. Within her own country, the allegation of financial irregularities within Banchte Shekha by people who fraudulently claimed to be her staff members has fallen flat since a donor-instituted special audit has termed it ``an excellent and well-run organisation.''

Gomes looks ahead with confidence. ``I don't think I will die of cancer for another 20 years. I have had several rounds of chemotherapy and my doctors have praised my courage.'' She and Banchte Shekha are profiles of resilience and fortitude, qualities needed in abundance for agents of change.