Introduction
Rehnuma Karim is currently an PhD candidate in human resource development at Pennsylvania State University. When she receives her doctoral degree, she will return to Bangladesh, her country of origin, to start her own non-governmental organization, focusing on empowerment of youth through jobs, which will reduce poverty in future generations. The transcript for our team's interview with Ms. Karim is below. To jump to different questions, use the links in the sidebar on the left.
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Question #1: What do you believe are the major causes of poverty?
In Bangladesh, the first is education - lack of education.
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Seventy percent of the total population is not educated, and although they say that 30% are educated, many really just know how to read and write their names - that’s not a real education.
Also more than half the population is female, but they’re in a patriarchal society where the women are a bit submissive, so they are not having a chance to contribute to the economy.
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Question #2: What do you feel are good ways to alleviate poverty?
One way is to gain education - at least a primary education has to be provided to everyone.
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You have to provide that because for a lot of students, just after grades two or or, their parents need them at home, so they are dropping out of school. We have to stop that. You can give incentives; for example: if your daughter is in school, then we are going to give you an incentive, an agricultural subsidy. This can encourage the parents; "they are helping us," they say, "so why not put our children into the school." You have to have education, because once the children are educated they can use their education and they can generate income for themselves.
Another [way to alleviate poverty] is political awareness. Most people in the [Bangladeshi] population are not aware of their rights, their own human rights. So they can be abused, they can be exploited in different ways. They have to be aware of their citizenship - "why are we citizens of this country and what are our demands, our rights?" If they can achieve that, then they can get a lot of things done for their community, for their locality, and even for the villages. So you have to create mass awareness of democracy and citizenship.
However, most of the politicians are so corrupted that they only think about their own interests. We have to change the political system totally. My theory is that we need new politicians who are educated - you have to ban politicians who are not. At least they have to have a degree from a university. Many of the politicians have only gone through the eighth grade. You have to change that. Once you have good leaders, you can really alleviate poverty.
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Question #3: What exactly do you plan to do with the NGO you create?
One thing I want to do is create community awareness among the youth from the high school level to university students.
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That’s a huge resource we [Bangladeshis] have, and they are not at all utilized. They just go to school and come home, while in the U.S. they [the students] are going to the community and helping people. They are a huge resource. They can educate people... For example, the students from the agricultural university can teach farmers how to grow food properly. So this kind is one thing I want to do: create community awareness among the youth through volunteer management.
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Question #4: How do you think that access to information, for example, the internet, works to alleviate poverty?
When I was in school I didn’t know anything about computers.
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But then at the college level, I learned about computers, and I had access to new ideas, different information. [Through computers] people in Bangladesh can have access to different businesses worldwide. They can build software or they can produce clothes or handicrafts and sell them through the Internet.
In villages, where there is lack of transportation and communication, you can remove the middle man completely. The middle man takes a lot of money from the poor. So when you take out the middle man and you have direct access to the buyer, then you really get a better price.
In one Bangladeshi village in Sylhet, there was very a good clay deposit. And one Italian [clay] buyer came to visit Bangladesh. One of the Bangladeshis had contacted him and told him, “We have very good clay to make pottery or tiles for houses. So can you help us if we send you samples? Can you think about selling this clay?” The Italian said, “Oh yes, send us a sample.” So they did. And now in one town in Italy, most of the houses are made with Bangladeshi clay tiles, and that community in Sylhet has reduced its poverty level to almost zero. Everybody is educated, and they have food three times a day. And this can happen in lots of villages. And there again, the communication, or Internet access, it really helps.
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Sources
Karim, Rehnuma. Personal Interview. 24 December 2005.
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