Press release:
To empower unemployed women garment workers and enhance their economic resilience through entrepreneurship, 49 women have received financial support to start businesses and sustain their livelihoods, thereby increasing household incomes.
LightCastle Partners, a Dhaka-based international business consulting firm and International Development Enterprise, iDE, an International Development Organisation under a project called ‘Oporijita’ funded by the H&M Foundation, the foundation of a UK-based international RMG seller, provided support for the program which helped the women in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur under the Oporajita initiative.
Initially, 600 women from the areas took part in 30 advocacy sessions under the project which were jointly done by iDE & LightCastle Partners. Among the 300 high-potential participants, 200 of them applied to receive financial assistance.After connecting with financial services providers, 46 women received loans, while two women from Savar and one woman from Gazipur got investments from LightCastle Partners’ Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) service. The recipients got money ranging from 20,000 to 80,000 taka.
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After receiving the monetary support along with business training, the recipients are now more equipped to conduct their business in sewing, bakery, parlour services and poultry farming. One of the beneficiaries, Nasima Akhter, who initially worked in the garment sector, used project loans totalling Tk 80,000 to expand her dairy farming operations in Savar. Before receiving the loan, her daily milk sales amounted to Tk 200.
Following the financial support, her sales increased to Tk 700 per day, Moushumi Akter, who received the BNPL service in Savar, said, “After receiving an electric oven through LightCastle’s BNPL programme, I could meet my cake sales requirements more efficiently.
As a result, I now earn more money than I did before. This has allowed me to dedicate more time to other business activities.”Under the project, loans have been disbursed among women workers for enhancing economic resilience and creating sustainable livelihoods through micro-entrepreneurship.The project aims to enhance the employability of 1,500 out-of-work women garment workers through entrepreneurial and financial literacy training in the next one year.
