Wings to fly

Sumita lives in a small rural village in northwest Bangladesh. It’s an agricultural area, most of her neighbours are farmers and the housing conditions are poor. She married young, and has dedicated her life to her family and three children. Now she wants to open her wings and fly.

Sumita joined AzuKo’s Build for safety training to learn how to improve her home. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but soon found out it was much more than a construction course – it was a door to opportunities. After she completed the training, she set her sights on improving her kitchen. She’s a talented cook, and spends much of her day preparing meals for her family. Along with women in her village, she formed a savings group to help each other access finance for home improvements.

She saved enough money to contribute 6,000 BDT (£45), approximately 20% of the build cost for her new kitchen, and we worked with her to design and build it. The kitchen is raised above flood waters with a brick plinth, and the once earthen floor is now cement reducing the need for maintenance and repairs. New walls and roof protect against the intense sun and monsoon rains, with lockable doors so she can safely store utensils. The design encourages cross ventilation, meaning it now doesn’t fill with thick black smoke... and her favourite feature, a kitchen table. She no longer needs to prepare meals hunched over the floor. This is the power of good design.

“Before my kitchen had no walls and a mud floor. It was difficult to keep the rats away. Now we have this kitchen. It’s so clean. I can store food, prepare and cook easily.”

— Sumita

Sumita loves her country of Bangladesh. She used to dream about joining the civil service, but when she became a mother her life took a different path. Now she sees new possibilities for her family, and also for herself.

“When I was young, I was like a bird. I was free. I want to fly. I think I can, I have hope again.”

Rumar dreams of a better way

Today Rumar is cooking cauliflower and potato mash with rice and greens. She is responsible for preparing and cooking meals for her family of five. Like many women in her village in Dinajpur, Bangladesh, she faces real challenges in the home.

Her kitchen is only 3.4 sqm and is built on a raised earthen plinth which she protects from the driving rain as best she can. Without walls and a leaky roof, things are difficult in the monsoon.

“During rainy season the kitchen floods. The roof needs to be repaired so I cook under an umbrella… I have to make sure water doesn’t get into the stove or the fire goes out.”

Rumar makes and repairs her stove using a mix of earth and water. She worries about the open flames when her children are near and shows us burns she’s suffered from cooking this way. Her kitchen has flooded numerous times and burnt to the ground a few years ago due to a fire that escalated. There is no electricity or piped water supply.

“We share a tubewell with our neighbours, so I carry the pots and pans outside to clean them after we eat. I store them in the house, otherwise the rats and dogs would come.”

Her family can afford to buy a small amount of jute sticks and wood to fuel the stove every month, but when this runs out Rumar gathers leaves and twigs to keep it going. This wet material produces a lot of smoke. She cooks on a small stool, at least for now she is not in too much discomfort.

Plan of the homestead

Rumar’s village is in one of the poorest regions of the country. Saving for home improvements is a struggle but she dreams of a better way - a kitchen that is safe and comfortable, a space that doesn’t fill the air with black smoke, a space she would enjoy cooking in.

In rural Bangladesh women spend much of their day in the home and within the kitchen, yet they are often not involved in its design. Their perspective is crucial. Kitchens are dark, cramped, unhygienic and poorly ventilated, contributing to chronic and acute health effects including lung cancer and diarrhoeal disease. They are leftover spaces despite the fact they are used from morning till night.

We are working with women like Rumar to co-design solutions that will improve their health and wellbeing. We believe Rumar holds the answers to the challenges she faces.

Help us empower these women to be design leaders in their communities. Donate to Heart of the home.

Author: J Ashbridge

Our community-led approach

Over a quarter of Bangladesh's population live in towns and cities. Rapid urbanisation, coupled with limited financial and physical capacity, has put significant strain on these areas.

To date, the Government of Bangladesh has mostly ignored the growth of informal settlements, or reacted by evicting squatters. New approaches to the urban context are needed.

“Throughout the world, slums upgrading is often done through investments in neighbourhood improvement that result in de facto security of tenure for the urban poor. This in turn allows families to incrementally improve their shelter conditions, thereby improving human capital, and leading to synergies in savings, employment and poverty reduction, and gradually incorporating informal settlements into city development.”

— Pro-poor slums integration / The World Bank

Global experiences show that slums upgrading requires strong engagement from urban poor communities for a number of reasons.

1. Slums and informal settlements are unique and dynamic. No single solution is suitable for all situations. Engagement is essential to create locally relevant and appropriate solutions.

2. Government delivery and private sector engagement can crowd out the poor. A community-led approach ensures that those involved in designing and implementing initiatives are also the beneficiaries.

3. As governments are slow to address urban improvements for slums, community-led approaches are often the only alternative.

We've been working with residents of Jogen Babu Maath slum, in Bangladesh, since 2010. Together with the community committee we’re mobilising residents, providing training, encouraging financing/saving, and improving infrastructure.

Author: J. Ashbridge