Creating a lot with a little.
Bangladesh in January brought some profound experiences for the team, including myself (Jennifer).
We have always been highly aware that the skills in Hair and Beauty that are taught at the college will be utilised in a huge variety of ways once students graduate from the college.
As the students come from varying districts around the country, some travel home and set up a home parlour, others will gain work in existing businesses in the capital Dhaka and others will set up a new business after first creating some capital working from home.
It was a confronting yet delightful experience, to be welcomed into the home and home business (parlour), of one of our graduates, and to meet her immediate family, aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces.
Mala, a true blue ‘Mymensingh Girl’, completed her course in Semester 2 of 2017. I was aware that she had a business running from home, though was not prepared for the entrepreneur that we encountered when our team was invited to her home with photographer/filmmaker Marcus Wong.
Mala’s home is a fairly typical Mymensingh village home, with with one room for Mala and her husband and son, another for her in-laws, and another room for her Hair and Beauty Business. The family shares the outside kitchen, and a vibrant pigeon coop is nestled in between.
Mala’s entrepreneurial skills astounded us, as we discovered she is offering a much wider range of hair and beauty services than we expected in her village parlour, including hair colouring, full bridal services, and chemical hair straightening.
Mala proudly showed us her invoicing booklet, a certificate from a one-day course she recently attended in Dhaka, a bar fridge with products for facials and massage, and photos from her most recent bridal work.
To the side of this small room was a sewing machine she uses for tailoring when she doesn’t have clients, and to top it all off, Mala runs her own pigeon farm, selling the birds for pigeon racing and as pets.
What an amazing role model this lady is to her family members and community, and what a learning curve for us all.
A classic case of doing what Tim Costello describes in his most recent biography as “doing lot with a little”.
Mala during her course in 2017.
Mala in her home parlour business. Photo: Marcus Wong.
