Sharna’s day labourer husband, Furkan Sheikh, is the only breadwinner in her family. Before joining this project, Sharna Begum (30), a mother of three from Khulna’s Terokhada Union, had difficulty managing three meals daily and bearing the household expenses with her husband’s meagre income. Sharna and Furkan were always looking to engage in multiple income-generating sources but they fell short of capital and confidence.
However, the PPEPP-EU project, with its support and resources, became a turning point in her life. The project provided Sharna with the necessary training, guidance, and financial support to venture into duck rearing, a field in which she had no prior experience. This support empowered her to take the risk of taking loans from the project for duck rearing and now she has a sustained income.
After receiving training and a small grant from the project in 2023, her journey began. She bought 100 ducklings in the first phase, raised them, and earned over BDT 25000 monthly by selling her duck eggs. Four months later, she sold 88 ducks for BDT 48400 and used the amount to buy a cow and to cultivate paddy in her 8-decimal lands.
With a good paddy harvest that season, she made a substantial profit from the sale and used it to buy 210 ducklings in the second phase, of which she now has 200 ducks that are six months old. Now, she earns around BDT 45,000 per month by selling eggs. Starting with the sale of table eggs, she now also produces hatching eggs and sells ducklings. During her journey, she received technical, financial, and market support from the PPEPP-EU’s implementing partner, Unnayan.
Next, Sharna scaled up her duck farm and diversified her income sources by taking a loan of BDT 40,000 from Unnayan, a PPEPP-EU partner organisation. In diversifying her income, she now has three cows, four goats, 20 chickens, and 20 pigeons. Since Sharna received a month-long training in tailoring, she earns around BDT 2000 monthly from her tailoring activities at home and cultivates vegetables on a small scale for household consumption. Dreaming big, she recently took a second loan of BDT 60,000 to buy more ducklings and start a small business run by her husband.
‘Now people lend us money because they know that if we sell two ducks right now, we can instantly repay them,’ says Sharna, who is regarded as a financially solvent lady in the community. Sharna’s success has not only transformed her own life but also earned her the trust and respect of her community.