Thirty-three-year-old Josna and her husband Mohammad live with their daughter and son in Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar, where Mohammed works as a day labourer. Although they used to scrape together BDT 500 per day with his work and odd jobs, work has been harder to find since the Rohingya refugees arrived. As a result, Mohammed has earned less and less, but Josna became involved in our IOM, OFDA and SAFE Plus-funded ‘Improving Community Resilience Through Cooperative Livelihood Actions’ project and is now a business owner herself.
It all started when Josna learned about our project at a village meeting and put her name down on a survey. After that, Josna joined every meeting of the local self-help group set up by the project where she received business plan development training as well as a focused course on goat rearing which is becoming increasingly profitable in the region.
After receiving training and preparing a business plan, Josna received a grant which she used to buy goats and build a small house for them. Two of her goats were pregnant within the first month and Josna predicts that after six months she should have nearly 15 goats on her farm, each worth approximately BDT 10,000. While she plans to sell some, others she will keep for their milk to ensure that her family has access to protein and nutrition. She expects that she can manage approximately 20–25 goats on a rotating basis and believes she will achieve this within the year. She will then move on to farming cattle.
Josna says, “I am so pleased to have this opportunity to support my family with income and nutritious food!”