ARTISANS:
307
POVERTY RATE:
25.6%
BANGLADESH
Bangladesh graduated from the UN’s least developed countries and is on track to graduate in 2024. The poverty rate has dropped from 44.2% in 1990 to 13.8% in 2016/17. Bangladesh is a model for the UN but, a challenge for policymakers with the 22 million people who still live below the poverty line.
One of the leading problems in Bangladesh is domestic violence. Around 87% of women experience physical and sexual spousal violence in their lifetime. We have been teaching women about prevention of domestic violence and how to do independent activities such as banking. Our country director demanded these women from the “untouchable cast” be allowed to have bank accounts. They spent over 3 hours teaching the women to sign their name. Now any Ten by Three artisan is allowed to have a bank account.
RAW MATERIAL
The sea grass is grown in the Bay of Bengal hundreds of miles from our artisans and must be transported by truck. The date palm leaves grow very abundantly throughout the country. Artisans wrap the date palm around the sea grass and every few inches the date palm is “sewn” to the layer beneath it using a needle about six inches long–this holds the entire basket together. As the artisans weave, the date palm being pulled around the sea grass makes a squeaking noise, much like sneakers on a wet floor.
TECHNIQUE: “coil” technique
TIME FRAME: It takes the average Bengali artisan 1.5 days to weave a basket.
Results
L.G. Sarkar is proud of her family. They live in a rented 10×10 room and, when we found them, were existing on about 75 cents a day. Desperate to ensure her children’s education, poverty forced L.G. to turn to the sex trade. It’s obviously not something she’s proud of, but something she was forced to do in order to provide for her children. However, those days are behind her. One Prosperity Wage® payment from Ten by Three set her on the road to financial independence ensuring she will never again be forced to make such a desperate choice. Thanks to your purchases, L.G. graduated from poverty and exited our program in January of 2013.
Nirupama Saha wants what every mother wants for her children, a safe home, education and the ability to feed and cloth them. When Ten by Three found her, she was existing on $10 a month weaving for a basket middleman. We refuse to work with middlemen and only deal directly with the artisan. Nirupama received more money in her first Prosperity Wage® payment than she could have earned in six years from the middleman. When you purchase products from Ten by Three, be assured the artisan receives more money from us than from anyone in the world. Thanks to your purchases, Nirupama graduated from poverty and exited our program in January of 2013.
Shuchitra and her husband Dominic are doing whatever they can to make ends meet. He is a carpenter, she is a weaver and together they support their daughter and Dominic’s aging parents. Before we found them, poverty often forced the couple to choose between their daughter’s education and food. Today, that is no longer the case because Shuchitra weaves for Ten by Three. You bought her baskets which enabled us to pay Shuchitra more money in one Prosperity Wage® payment than she could have earned in six years from a basket middleman. Thanks to your purchases, Shuchitra graduated from poverty and exited our program in January of 2013.