Poverty and illiteracy often go hand in hand, and Mohammad Shanto from Patuakhali district’s Rangabali upazila was a stark example of this. He could not afford to continue his education after the 8th grade due to his family’s financial constraints. As a result, he found himself with no education or means of employment and started feeling lost in life. Shanto would often lash out at his parents and disrupt the peace in his family when he was refused the money he needed. Frustrated by his financial restriction, he associated with local troublemakers and developed delinquent behaviour.
Shanto’s father, Md. Ibrahim Bepari, a daily wage labourer and his mother, Hosne Ara Begum, a PPEPP-EU member, were concerned about what to do with Shanto.
During a Prosperity Village Committee (PVC) meeting, Hosne Ara learned about a vocational training programme to be organised by PPEPP-EU in electrical house wiring and expressed her interest in enrolling Shanto for this training. After a few discussions, Hosne Ara and the project staff persuaded Shanto to take part in the training.
Shanto completed the three-month training on electrical house wiring and returned home, confident. He began working as a local house wiring technician, using the electrical equipment he had received upon completing his training, initially earning between five and six thousand taka per month. However, in about six months, Shanto secured a job at an electrical sound system shop in Patuakhali district, earning a monthly salary of BDT 10,000. He used to send a portion of his earnings to his mother, who would save the money rather than spend it.
After ten months of work, Shanto found it challenging to continue working away from home and decided to return to his village. Then, his mother, on the advice of the PPEPP-EU project staff, rented an electrical and sound systems shop for Shanto and purchased the necessary electronic goods. She took a BDT 100,000 loan from CODEC, a PPEPP-EU partner organisation and used her savings to make this shop. In early 2024, Shanto started his new enterprise by utilising his talent and skills.
After repaying the first loan, Shanto took a second loan of BDT 120,000 to expand his enterprise. Currently, his average monthly income excluding expenses is around BDT 20,000. Shanto is now teaching his younger brother electrical work in addition to his studies.
Shanto’s mother also contributes to the family’s income through her Trichocompost fertiliser production, which she initiated with a BDT 7,000 grant from the PPEPP-EU project a few years ago.
Now, they have a milch cow and a calf at home, worth BDT 100,000, courtesy of Shanto, which helps meet their nutritional needs. They rear 20 chickens, from which they earn around 5,000 to 6,000 Taka per year, after meeting their nutritional needs. Shanto and his father cultivate seasonal crops, such as rice, pulses, peanuts, and green chillies, on a 100 decimal leased land, which generated approximately 67,000 Taka in the last season.
Nevertheless, Shanto’s hard work has paid off as peace has returned to the family. Having married this year, Shanto is living a happy conjugal life and dreams of rebuilding their old home. He reflects, “If the PPEPP-EU project had not provided me with electrical house wiring training, I would not have come this far.”