Women Entrepreneurs Shining Bright with Green Power –PRANTOJON

Promoting Green Energy through the Enhancement of Just and Sustainable Value Chain, the FGG III (Fair, Green, and Global) project works with women in rural communities to encourage them to adopt renewable energy in sustainable and green alternative livelihood options. Through such interventions, the project is working to develop a fair and comprehensive power and energy policy that would ensure social and environmental justice by transitioning the energy sector value chain’s dependence from fossil fuel to renewable energy. Sukhi Begum, from Modhupara village in the Dhankhali Union of Kalapara, ran a small store with her husband. The income from the store supported their family well. Unexpectedly, in 2023, Sukhi’s husband passed away. His death was not only a deep emotional shock to the family but also left Sukhi and her family in financial distress. In East Londa, another village, Soma experienced a similar condition when she lost her husband in 2017, who was a construction worker at the Payra 1320 Thermal Power Plant. Soma was left with the responsibility of taking care of their family’s expenses alone. To cope with the newly emerged financial needs, she decided to explore learning resources and learned to sew. She wanted to use her sewing skills to generate income, but a sewing machine was still not affordable for her. Carrying on with strong determination, she saw the light of hope when she started getting support from others. ActionAid Bangladesh and Prantojon provided Soma and Sukhi with solar-powered sewing machines. These machines helped to keep operational cost low and helped Soma to earn money by saving high electricity costs. Sukhi Begum said, “I am supporting my son’s education with my income,” while Soma added, “My operational costs are lower because my sewing machine uses solar energy, which allows me to provide more for my family. https://actionaidbd.org/post/impact-stories/women-entrepreneurs-shining-bright-green-power” #Prantojon #Actionaidbangladesh

Women Entrepreneurs Shining Bright with Green Power –PRANTOJON

Similarly, Sabita Begum from Lalua Union, whose husband died four years ago, shared, “With my husband, we ran our small store after our farming lands were taken in acquisition for the Payra port. Now, I am the only earning member in the family. I do not have enough resources to expand my business. Moreover, rising electricity costs further increase the store’s operational cost.” Farida Begum from Debpur village faced a similar fate when her land was acquired for the Ashuganj Power Station Company. After losing their primary source of income, she now runs a small shop near the Ashuganj Power Plant to support her family. She is also facing the challenge of rising electricity costs. The rising cost of electricity poses a significant challenge for small businesses like those of Sabita and Farida Begum. However, ActionAid Bangladesh stepped in with the FGG III project’s intervention to sustain these enterprises of the displaced and affected community. Under the FGG III project, Prantojon assisted both Sabita and Farida in installing solar-powered systems in their shops. The solar power system reduces the burden of electricity bills, which helps to balance their operational costs. Both of them are now earning around 1000-1500 BDT per day from their solar-powered shops. These efforts by ActionAid Bangladesh and its partners, Prantojon, IRV (Initiative for Right View), and Songshoptaque, have not only supported women in Kalapara, Rampal, and Matarbari but also showcased sustainable solutions for small enterprise owners through renewable energy. Sabita and Farida are now inspiring other women to start their own businesses. Meanwhile, Soma and Sukhi are teaching other women how to save money by using renewable energy. This is helping the women of Kalapara understand that using renewable energy can protect their lives, animals, and the environment. #Prantojon #Actionaidbangladesh https://actionaidbd.org/post/impact-stories/women-entrepreneurs-shining-bright-green-power

Md. Tauhedul Islam Shahazada, Barisal. Prantojon Agro-Uplifting Root Level Farmers

The inspiration behind #Prantojon Agro Enterprise came from my wish to work for the marginal people. It was 2004 when the Prantojon Trust was founded. Being a non-profit organization, we collaborated with different donors, organizations such as Oxfam, to support local farmers. However, we understood that we weren’t doing enough. It took us some time but eventually, we adopted a business plan to sustain the trust fund while creating a profitable enterprise. In 2014, #PrantojonAgro Enterprise started promoting fresh agro-products for mass consumption through an efficient marketing system. The initial investment came from the people behind the Prantojon Trust. In the beginning, we had some difficulties communicating with the farmers. But it soon worked out well as we could connect with them with our plan. Although full-fledged financial help is available for the farmers, we focus on technical and marketing support for their agro-products. Currently, our enterprise works with almost 5000 contact farmers for fresh agro-products such as mung beans, dal, cucumber, bitter gourd, eggplant, sweet-gourd, etc. The farmers sell new and safe products to use at the market standard prices. Our enterprise then handles the rest of the marketing process. We have created a local brand named Deshi, and under this title, we package these products to sell in different stores & households. We already have a working contract with Daraz for home delivery and almost finalized our trading registration with FoodPanda. Other than crops and vegetables, we also work with 500 contact farm owners to sell raw milk. We have a filling plant for this purpose. Upon receiving the raw milk straight from the owners around 8-9 a.m, we cool it in the filling plant and packet it for sending out to local super shops, stores, households under the Deshi brand name. We always make sure to help the local producers to get the best price while maintaining the quality of the products. As the production of agricultural goods depends on various factors like weather, soil condition, etc., we don’t have stable data for sales revenue. But for rough estimation, the sales revenue for dal in good condition falls between BDT 25-30 lakh for a month. This year, we have a target net profit margin of 12% and a growth profit margin of 19%. However, last year was not so fruitful for us. The pandemic situation completely took us by surprise. In our several years of work experience, we never encountered such difficulties before. It was something we never could predict nor judge. We had to shut down our operation for a while. Our production for dal suffered and the demand declined drastically. Because the need for dal depends heavily on public events, functions, programs, etc., and all of these were not possible during the Covid-19 outbreak. Raw milk demand also decreased because households did not open their doors to buy raw milk. The virus was spreading throughout the country, and we were getting affected by its repercussions. But it could out stop us and our operation. We went online and updated our business plans. Apart from selling our products on Daraz, we also work with different local online services such as Feriwala and others. Now, we have a strategic plan to understand the market. The pandemic allowed us to focus more on digital services. LightCastle Partners hosted an investment program with Oxfam, where we partnered with them. The project helped many entrepreneurs like me. I got to learn some technical skills from that project. Now, we want to pass our knowledge and technical aspects to the rural farmers. For the future, we are planning to expand our business by covering more districts outside Barishal. After surviving through such difficulties, we are looking forward to changing the lives of marginal people and supporting them in their journey. #Prantojon #Prantojonagro https://entrepreneursofbangladesh.com/stories/prantojon-agro-uplifting-root-level farmers fbclid=IwY2xjawF17VJleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHRmfHhqWsSpQz3noC7scKqYPkNFramD7wulkp0JfjZOPP6H_gX4kL4Su2Q_aem_TCnA7W56AaIKenmK-qpgFg