HEED Handicrafts
HEED Handicrafts as a Fair Trade Organisation was established in 1978 with the aim of creating jobs and employment for poor and marginalised people, specialized in handicrafts producing, using locally available environment friendly raw materials.
HEED Handicrafts is part of the larger non-governmental and non-profit organisation HEED (Health, Education and Economic Development) Bangladesh, formed in 1974 in response to the post-war needs in Bangladesh.
Today HEED Handicrafts provides income-generating activities for 11,500 disadvantaged men and women working within 300 groups. HEED Handicrafts provides its members training in weaving, tailoring, embroidery, woodcarving as well as education to improve the producers' skill on products, design and the market. The organisation also encourages trainees from any religious denomination to learn the above skills and hence Christians, Muslims and Hindus work side by side.
Weaving is a family profession of Md. Siraj Miah. In the beginning he worked in a private textile mill at Tejgaon but when the mill closed he lost his job. After having looked unsuccessfully for employment he joinedthe handicraft handloom section at HEE as a weaver in 1988. He is a father of two daughters; elder one got married and has 3 children.
His wife is working with him as a spinner and their elder daughter is in the tailoring section, also producing for HEED Handicrafts.. Later on, Awal son in law of Md. Siraj got work in the Handloom section as a weaver. From this history, we saw that how a family survived by HEED's support. Actually, HEED succeeds to work among the helpless people and create many examples like this story.
Now they are happy and grateful to HEED Handicrafts co-operations and supports. They learnt from HEED how to develop a family by a proper guidance. Moreover, they said that HEED is not only an organization but it is like as family. They feel encouragement for love, sympathy and fair wages of HEED. Besides this, all are very cooperative. Financially they are solvent now.
