KIT Blog

Mrs. Hazera Begum is one of  the hundreds of female artisans Bonoful Handmade Paper Project has helped lift out of extreme poverty.  Like many of her co-workers, Hazera comes from a very poor family and had to leave school when she was in fourth grade.

At sixteen, Hazera’s parents arranged her marriage to a day labourer. Hazera and her husband eventually had three daughters and a son.  It became almost impossible for him to provide the minimum basic needs to support their family. Hazera realised she needed to find a job.

In 1996, Hazera started as a producer in the Bonoful Handmade Paper project. She has been working there ever since.

After her husband’s death in 2005, she continued to raise her children to be best of her ability. Currently, all three of her daughters are married with families of their own, and her son is still in school.

Hazera says, ‘Bonoful is like a second family to me. I want to work with this project as long as I am alive.’”

Bonoful Handmade Paper project supplies products to Prokritee fair trade in Bangladesh. The Leprosy Mission Australia sources handmade paper products through Prokritee to feature in the gift catalogue and online shop.  Items like this beautiful patchwork notebook Hazera has made below.

And now you know the story behind the patchwork…