At Colours From The Chars by Friendship NGO, we aim to create beautiful environmental-friendly fabrics in an ethical manner. Truth be told, we want to change what little of the world we can for the better. One life at a time from the Char River Island Communities.

The Bangladeshi River Islands are harsh and unforgiving, but they are home to women of the kindest and determined nature. Despite their fortunes, these beautiful souls embraced our free training programmes to learn how to weave. What may surprise you, is how they used that skill to stitch their own passion and compassion into beautiful hand-woven fabrics. Today we share their stories of change to you and the world, through little tokens of pure love.

Rashida from the Bojradiar Khata Chars (located at the mid of Brahmaputra River at Chilmari Upazilla of Kurigram District) looks after a family of three children and her husband. Her husband is a daily labourer.

“My husband helps in basic masonry work at the Chilmari Upazilla, and what he earns is not sufficient to run a family of five. We couldn’t survive like this where I wasn’t contributing. My children needed a future and I had to do something to give my babies what they deserve. But there weren’t any opportunities for a woman of my circumstances in my area at all! Until Friendship NGO took me in.” 

Desperate for the betterment of her family and for her children’s education, Rashida joined the Friendship Vocational Training Centre at Bojradiar Khata in 2011 where she got a 6 months training on weaving, dyeing, printing and bobbing sponsored by Sustainable Economic Development Programme of Friendship NGO.

After successful completion of the training she joined our weaving centre as a Weaving Artisan. From then she is comfortably contributing to her family and for education of her three children.