After struggling for years, Fulasa fought her way out of poverty by helping nourish the minds and bodies of children in her community. She serves as a shining example of the central role that women play in addressing poverty and undernutrition.
JAMALPUR DISTRICT – Fulasa Begum from Islampur Upazila earns around BDT20,000 (approximately US$ 257) every month. This income only recently became a reality for Fulasa who eyed an opportunity – to establish herself as an entrepreneurial vegetable cultivator – and took it.
Previously, Fulasa, and her husband Omad Ali, worked as day labourers, but irregular job opportunities and sporadic payments trapped the family in a cycle of poverty. The daily struggle for money prevented them from providing enough food for their two sons and Omad Ali’s mother.
However, in 2013, when the World Food Programme launched its School Meals programme in the school of her sons in Islampur, a job opening surfaced for Fulasa.
Through the School Meals programme, and in partnership with the Government of Bangladesh, WFP serves cooked meals to students. Providing daily meals in school helps students focus in class and gives a strong incentive for poor families to send their children to school and keep them there.
Moreover, the programme supports the community because the cooked meals are, among other ingredients, made from vegetables grown by local women cultivators and prepared by local women cooks. When Fulasa showed interest to work in the school’s kitchen, the local procurement committee decided to recruit her as an assistant cook.
While working in the kitchen, Fulasa noticed the vast amounts of vegetables used for the children’s meals every day and spotted another opportunity to boost the family’s economy. After having saved enough money, Fulasa leased two plots of land to cultivate vegetables. Eggplants, pumpkins and tomatoes, which she sells to the school’s kitchen and at the local market, gave her additional income that helped free her family from poverty.