Nari Jibon Project and Its Bloggers: What Other Bloggers are Saying

Recently I returned from 45 hot (beshi garum) days in Bangladesh where I visited the Nari Jibon Project, among other activities. Loadshedding continued to take its toil on me, Nari Jibon computers, students as well as garment factories. Nonetheless students have come to their computer and english classes as well as practiced in the women only cyber cafe. During this visit, many students opened their own blogs!

Students in the computer lab.....

During this time, Nari Jibon hosted a visiting lecturer, Kira, who gave a lecture and worked with smaller groups on blogs, photography, photo websites.

In response, many students posted in the Nari Jibon english blog for the first time. Other students have continued to contributed to Nari Jibon bangla blog. Many of the bangla poems have been translated into english and posted in the english blog. Some students opened their own blogs (in English and Bangla) and some staff started blogging again...

some bloggers' photography session with Ms. Kira:
Zannat, Jannat, Afiya, Choti, Kira, Jainub's daughter, Jesmin

new! Ms. Kira's moving reflections on working with the new bloggers-photographers and leaving Nari Jibon and Bangladesh: http://www.k-minos.com/?p=613

For overviews of these blogging activities, check out what she and others have been saying about Nari Jibon and its bloggers. Please follow the links within and read the bloggers' creative activities as they find and develop their own voices and computer-photo skills and continue to post. Your comments (kind, thoughtful, constructive) will provide much needed encouragement. Below, I list some students' and staff members' individual blogs.

new from David Sasaki's visit to Dhaka and Nari Jibon Project:

http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/blog/2008/09/02/nari-jibon-using-blogs-to-give-bangladeshi-women-new-skills/

new ! http://el-oso.net/blog/archives/2008/09/02/bangladesh/en/

http://el-oso.net/blog/archives/2008/08/15/an-update-from-nari-jibon/en/

http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/blog/2008/08/14/nari-jibon-making-a-difference/

http://uncultured.com/2008/07/25/what-would-kathy-do/

http://www.k-minos.com/?p=577

http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/blog/2008/07/10/nari-jibon-the-joy-of-having-their-own-blog/

Some Students’ blog addresses

Afrin's Gallery http://asiaafrin.blogspot.com/

Jesmin’s garden http://jesmingarden.blogspot.com/

Zannat's world http://zannatworld.blogspot.com/

Rainbow http://jannat-fardoush.blogspot.com/

Bangladeshi Women http://jainub-khanam.blogspot.com/

Ahona http://ahona-hira.blogspot.com/

Window of Mind, http://sufia-eti.blogspot.com/

My Dream, http://poly-dream.blogspot.com/

Choti’s blog http://choitrerdinguli.blogspot.com/

Staff blog addresses:

new ! Kajol's destiny http://kajols-destiny.blogspot.com/

Bipa’s Prokrito Bangladesh http://www.bipa-prokritobangladesh.blogspot.com/

Sujan’s Chinta, http://hi-bangladesh.blogspot.com/

Creative talk by Nilufa http://annekuet.blogspot.com/

Kazi’s eye, http://kazi-rafiq.blogspot.com/

Techna Tara: http://taslima-toma.blogspot.com/

computer teachers taslima & nilufa watch kira teach about photography

DAY 13/shift space-Monowara Begum who faced domestic violence after marriage

On Day 13, the Take Back the Tech crew invite you to get geeky and try on some different add-ons for Firefox that enable you to add post-type notes via Shift-shapes and make and share comments with friends who have this add-on installed. Have fun!

I want to hightlight the brave & frank video made by Nari Jibon's computer teacher and blogging coordinator, Taslima: Monowara Begum who faced domestic violence after marriage
In this Bangla video on YouTube, Monowara tells about the domestic violence that she experienced from her in-laws. You also see her printing the english alphabet and showing what she has learned at Nari Jibon. Some english narrative about Monowara's life is included in this post, including her resilence through loss of one daughter, birth of two sons, estrangement, and reconcilation with her husband, and her Bangla and hopefully tailoring education at Nari Jibon.

This video was originally posted on Bangladesh from Our View blog and is Nari Jibon's contribution to the 16 days campaign to eliminate violence against women.

Nari Jibon's blogging activities are supported in part by Rising Voices-Global Voices, which seek to expand citizen media around the world through small seed grants. You can link to the Rising Voices website to read more about blogging projects in Bolivia, Colombia, Sierra Leone, and Kolkata.

Post Cyclone Sidr coverage by/of Nari Jibon Bloggers

Bhalo korechen (well-done) to Nari Jibon students and staff bloggers and their English & Bangla blog & photo coverage of the Cyclone Sidr and relief efforts. For an overview of their blogging, personal stories, and links, see Rezwan's In the eye of the storm: Bangladeshi bloggers speak

As you can imagine, I am very proud of them, especially when they came to the Nari Jibon office in Dhaka on Saturday, 17 Nov, not quite 48 hours after the Cyclone Sidr stormed across Bangladesh and left the office-classes without electricity or internet connections. And they came for English and other classes and started handwriting their stories in English and Bangla, went out and talked with people and took photos, uploaded their stories and photos when the power & internet came on a few days later, and now they are accessible via the Internet to you.

Consider making a Sidr donation. Rumi tells of the sad story of Eachi’r Ma and her late daughter, and also encourages you to donate to the Sidr compensation fund to be set up via United Bangladesh Appeal, to provide funds to survivors. If you prefer another venue, check out the links in previous posts and making a donation for relief efforts, which will be going on for a long time.

If you are interested in knowing more about Nari Jibon Project, you can click on the links on the lower right side-blue box of your screen and/also the important link--donation--these young women and staff with support for their computer, language, tailoring, and training activities. They take classes in English, Computers, Bangla and Tailoring--all for nominal fees--and have access to the secure Nari-only cyber cafe (along with other women customers). Consider giving a donation-gift in your own or someone's name so that a meritorious but poor female can take a class, have safe transportation, and class supplies (a list of needs-donations-gifts is available on request, but uploaded soon at www.narijibonusa.org).