Aslaamu alikkum, my name is Lathif Jesmin. I started working as a handloom weaver at the Muslim Women’s Research and Action Forum (MWRAF) Centre in 2008. I was selected as a beneficiary to receive startup funding to start my own handloom production at home as I am a single mother supporting my son. My husband is not with me, and have faced many hardships without a steady income.

I attended many trainings in business management methods of handloom weaving to be able to generate some income. I was given start-up assistance from MWRAF to weave handloom material and garments. The trainings thought me to save part of my profits to improve my business and was able to expand my self-employed handloom business from 1 loom to 5 looms and was able to provide employment to 5 more women and another 4 women who treadle the loom warps.

I participated in the very informative training of colour theory at MWRAF Centre and am glad that I now have a better understanding of how to combine the primary colours with other colours to bring out better colour combinations. The improved production of garments and materials would add value to my finished garments and will bring better markets and demands and increase income.

Due to Covid 19 and intercity lockdown we faced challenges in transporting and marketing our products. We had to sell in the local markets with very little or no profit in order to survive with even a little income and could not continue with our industry and suffered many problems. We had to withdraw all our savings and felt very disadvantaged.

I thank MWRAF for assisting me and my team to revive my production at this difficult time especially that MWRAF undertook to market my finished garments from their office and on their website and look forward to increasing our incomes and restart our savings and overcome poverty and dependency.