Shaylo Balo - Pumpkins against Poverty beneficiary
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Authors
Elizabeth Dunn
Issue Date
2015-08
Type
Language
en
Keywords
Agriculture
Alternative Title
Abstract
“It’s my duty to look after my son. I am last on the list.” Shaylo is a 50 year old widow living in the village of Chilmari in Northern Bangladesh. She has four daughters who have married and a fourteen year old son who lives with her. She has had to move home three times in her lifetime. Shaylo looks tired and weary, “yes I suffer problems, I get tired” she explained. Shaylo works long hours as a labourer, sometimes cutting mud for building roads but usually harvesting crops for local farmers. Although she works hard and for long periods of time, she gets paid poorly. For a full day, she can earn as little as 80 taka (less than a pound!). Like many in her community, Shaylo can only get work for certain times of the year. Much of the work she is employed to do is processing crops after the harvest, while the crops are growing there are no crops to harvest, so there is no work. The lack of work makes life hard for Shaylo and her son, “It’s hard to arrange two meals a day, sometimes it’s only one.” Shaylo always feeds her son first, as a Mother she sees this as only natural but this means that she sometimes goes hungry. When asked to describe their diet, she said that they usually eat rice and potato and she cannot remember the last time that they ate fish. Her son sometimes helps by doing a little fishing but whatever he catches he sells as he knows that this will support his Mother. “During the times I’m without work, I borrow money and pay them back when I’m working” says Shaylo. She and her son suffer throughout the year but she said that “the monsoon time is the worst for us.” Not only do they have less food but they also fear the rains. When asked about whether she felt they had enough nutritious food, she replied “we don’t care about nutrition, we just need to eat.” Unfortunately for them, just having enough food would vastly improve their lives. Her husband was a fisherman and would support the family but for the past three years this has been her sole responsibility. Shaylo has dedicated her life to supporting her son, who she wants to have a better future. Shaylo just wants to make sure her son has a bright future “If I could buy a piece of land for my son, it would change his life. Land is fixed.” Shaylo used to have her own land, until it was washed away, where she would grow vegetables for the family. “If I bought a goat for him, it would die. If I bought a net, it wouldn’t last. Land is forever.” The Pumpkins against Poverty project will help Shaylo and her son to lift themselves out of poverty. Through using the sand bars, she would have access to land every year where she could grow nutritious pumpkins. During the ‘lean period’ they would be able to store enough pumpkins to get them through this time. She would also be able to earn an income from selling the excess, meaning she will no longer need to work long hours for a small profit.