Some of the village women and children taking shelter.
Jason amusing the children
Due to heavy rainfall, there is a lot of flooding.
Some of their pigs! Aka "shoosta" here.
They just loved to show us all of their pigs!
The first village we went to was an all Hindu village of pig-rearers. In Bangladesh only 15% of the population is Hindu and the rest are Muslim. And typically Muslims view pigs as very dirty animals. Thus these pig-rearers have a history of being discriminated against by the majority of society. And consequently, they see themselves as the lowest caste of society.
GouF efforts to help this pig-rearing community of over 600 people are amazing. For example, someone is sent to the village at least monthly to read the women and children their basic human rights. Also, pigs have been given as capital to some of the women. But most importantly GouF has helped them to market the pig meat and find new markets in Dhaka and abroad, since they must sell it in a closed market.
The people are also being educated with laptop computers for various things. When we went there to see it, the rain poured! We were holed up in a little home for about an hour and the people entertained us with song and dance. Though they seemed thoroughly entertained by our presence!
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