Rubina Khatun (30), a PPEPP-EU member, lives in Satkhira’s Ashashuni Upazila’s Kulla Union, with her husband and two children. Her husband, a daily wage earner, had a meagre income to support their family and bear the education expenses of their children. The only possessions they had were a crumbling mud house on a Khas land and an adjacent small pond—assets that provided no comfort against the weight of their poverty.
Their fragile homestead was frequently ravaged by natural disasters. Each time their home was destroyed, Rubina was forced to borrow money to rebuild it, pushing the family further into debt. Her husband, already struggling with chronic respiratory problems, was unable to work consistently, and his declining income left the family in a dire situation.
As her husband’s income decreased, Rubina started working as a daily wage earner to support the family. But her earnings were barely enough to cover food for the four of them and buy medicine for her ailing husband and she often had to borrow money from others in the community. However, Rubina was always looking for a suitable and sustainable means of income generation for her family.
Her journey with PPEPP-EU began with a two-day training on skill development in poultry rearing, led by livestock experts. Subsequently, she received a BDT 11,000 grant from the project and a BDT 25,000 loan from Unnayan Prochesta, a partner organisation of PPEPP-EU. Utilising the financial assistance, Rubina built a poultry shed beside her house and started Sonali chicken farming, with the hope of making a stable income for her family.
In the first batch, she started with 400 ‘Sonali chickens’, a hybrid chicken better suited to withstand the challenging climatic conditions and meet the market demand. She continued her poultry venture with four consecutive batches, with a remarkable 1,200 chickens. By completing four cycles of ‘Sonali’ chicken rearing, she made a handsome net return of BDT 80,000.
Capitalising on her success, Rubina was inspired to establish a large-scale poultry farm. She took another BDT 40,000 loan, made a new shed for BDT 10,500 and doubled her chickens. Now, Rubina has 800 chickens under the shed, waiting to be sold in the next batch. With her growing confidence, she also plans to raise 1,500 chickens next time.
To raise her farm, Rubina received essential technical guidance from the project’s livelihood-related Technical and Assistant Technical officers. The project staff also assisted her in developing a good network with local market actors to sell her chickens and purchase farm inputs without any hassle.
Rubina shares, “Despite bearing the expenses of my family, I have opened a 10-year DPS of BDT 500, thinking about our future. Now we receive invitations to participate in various events and I am grateful to PPEPP-EU for everything we have today.”