Thanks to Canadian donors, 20 women in a village in northern Bangladesh are running a thriving tractor business and respected as leaders in their community. 

“We are all being changed,” says Rashida Begum, the group’s chair. “We are saving money and we are united.”

The group, called Bonaful Mhila Unnayuan Dal meaning “Jungle Flower Women’s Development Group”, started a tractor rental business with the support of their World Vision community development program.

In this rural area, many families work farms and rice paddies for a living. The savvy members of the group noticed how many farmers in the village rented or needed a tractor to till their land. Other farmers would plow the fields by hand or with a cow.

Self-esteem and savings

The group formed in December 2006 and World Vision helped cultivate their business by providing the tractor. Business is booming and the women, empowered. 

Mohsin Ali, agricultural officer for World Vision, says the business has raised the women’s self-esteem, in a place where gender inequality is a big obstacle. Mohsin notes that before forming the group, many of the women had no money of their own, let alone savings. Now they’ve put aside more than $942.

The women allow local farmers to use the tractor three times at a cost of $24 per acre. Profits are shared among the group members. The earnings have also paid for two cows so far, with another pair in the works.

Families benefit

Since most of the women’s husbands are farmers, they too will benefit from use of the tractor. Rashida’s eight-year-old daughter, Rahela, is just one of about 35 children who will reap the rewards of the business in which their mothers are involved. “We can produce crops and till. I like it very much,” Rahela says.

Rashida knows that the business wouldn’t have been possible without the support of World Vision and the Canadians who fund the community development program in which they live.

“I am offering thanks to our World Vision friends and those helping this community, especially this group,” she says with a smile.