GENERATIONS AT UTAS - Alumni & Friends - University of Tasmania

GeNeRATIoNS
Postcard from Bangladesh
By Sarah Nicol (BA 2006)
IN BANGLADeSh I hAve AN INSTANT
celebrity status. A white woman stands out
in a country where tourists are rare. People
stare at me walking down the street and
rickshaw drivers have been so transfixed,
they’ve crashed into the car in front.
on the Economist’s 2010 study of most
liveable cities, Dhaka rated joint second last
(equal with Algiers, and behind only harare).
The traffic is intolerable, sometimes taking
more than an hour to get 10 kilometres, and
few people know the way to any of the major
landmarks. The heat is extreme, especially
in the rainy season (which it was when I
arrived). Air conditioning is great, but only
when the power is running, which is only a
fraction of the day. The noise is constant,
whether it’s builders banging, horns honking
or hawkers shouting.
But it is worth being here.
I’m here as an Australian Youth Ambassador
for Development (AYAD), an AusAid initiative
at hunger Free World (hFW) in Dhaka.
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16 | ALuMNI NeWs | DECEMBER 2010 • Issue 38
hFW is a Japanese-based NGo working
in Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso
and Uganda. It does the full works –
promoting sustainable agriculture through
organic farming, improving nutrition,
women’s empowerment and educational
opportunities. hFW introduced an idea
– vision 2021 – of a self-reliant and povertyfree
Bangladesh by the 50th anniversary
of independence, in 2021. All projects are
geared towards this ideal, which has now
been adopted by the government.
I spent the past week in the field meeting
recipients from our programs. one woman’s
husband had died and she was struggling
to provide food for her four daughters.
We gave her a grant to buy basic materials
for creating muri (organic rice bubbles).
A year later she is selling her produce at the
market twice a week and making enough
profits to send her daughters to school and
provide a dowry for the eldest.
Instant celebrity: Sarah Nicol is working as an
Australian Youth Ambassador for Development
(AYAD) in Dhaka.
We have been training farmers in
agriculture. More girls are going to school
and more families are becoming financially
independent.
I’ve been here two months and have another
10 to go. I hope when I finish I’ve seen even
more changes to the areas in which hFW
works – and the country as a whole.
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