Smita Chowdhury, Dhaka
Brinta Jutes
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Ethnic women have to face a lot of discrimination in this country. I wanted to empower these women by giving them financial independence which is why I started “Brinta Jutes”, an organization that produces jute diversified products by utilizing the creativity and diligence of these women. It started back in 2006 when I was pretty much fighting with life and death. It was literally the battle of survival for me. My husband had just died at that time. After his death, I was abandoned by my in-laws stating that since I am a young woman with a daughter, society will ridicule them and tarnish their reputation. I was forced to leave the house. I took shelter at my parents’ house. But I did not want to become a burden to them. So, I quickly needed to figure something out.

I was working at a private job at that time, but it did not pay me well. It was very difficult to make ends meet. So, I decided to leave the job and start my own business. My daughter was still very small at that time. To build a business from scratch, I needed to invest a lot of my time in the business. I was looking for a boarding school for my daughter. So that she is taken care of properly. But I had one condition that I wanted to educate my daughter in English so that it gives her an edge in building her career. Because I had to go through a lot of trouble due to my inability to communicate in English. I could have gotten much better jobs if I were good at English.

After a lot of searching, I found out about a boarding school at Darjeeling which was within my budget. Then I left my daughter there to study and continued working on my business in Dhaka. In the beginning, it was very difficult for me to manage all the finances on my own. I did not see a stable stream of income for months. Those were the most difficult times of my life. I used to have sleepless nights thinking about how I would make my ends meet. But I am proud of myself for not giving up in the face of adversities. 

Brinta specializes in making jute diversified products. Our bestsellers are jute bags and Christmas decor. Our product has huge demand in both the local and international market. Our products have been well-received by various fashion houses of Dhaka city. We are listed as a distributor to Oikko store, one of the largest fashion chains in Bangladesh. We also sell our products to Jute Diversification Promotion Centre (JDPC). Our jute bags and Christmas decorations have a huge customer base in Japan as well. 

I have an NGO of my own called “ Manipuri Nari o Shishu Unnoyon Foundation ” which is a sister concern of Brinta Jutes. We help the children of the workers of Brinta to have access to free education. We take care of these children and help them shape into the best version of themselves. The core value of our organization is to never tell a lie no matter how big the offence is. That’s what we teach every single child that is a part of our NGO. Currently, there are thirty children who are getting access to free education from our NGO. 

My business incurred huge losses during the pandemic. We could not operate for almost three months. During those times, despite having no sales, I had to worry about supporting the children who come to the organization for support. The operations went back to normal in December. It took a lot to recover from the damage that Covid-19 caused us.

I was a part of one of TFO Canada’s projects through which I got in touch with LightCastle Partners. Through LightCastle Partners I have got to know about product marketing, bookkeeping practices and overall management of business. These helped me immensely in increasing the profitability of my own business. 

My future plans regarding Brinta Jutes is to expand my business and increase my exports. For that, I want to import machinery that will help the workers produce more products and earn more as well. This will improve the lives of the workers and their children. Now, we have 15 women working here and 30 children are supported by the NGO. I dream of educating 100 kids from my organization. To make this dream come true, I am looking for an investment of 1 crore taka. I hope better days are ahead and I can make my wishes come true.