When someone’s dream reaches beyond the sky, the root is most likely to stay firm at the ground. Patenga’s Mahbuba Ara is not an exception. Her maiden needlework and small home decors enterprise have brought her the success she never thought possible. Hailing from Kabirhat Upazila     (Noakhali) she and her husband started living in Patenga adjacent to BAF Zahurul Huq Base. Mahbuba Ara’s husband served in Bangladesh navy as a civil assistant foreman. But far before he got retired in 2019 his industrious and enterprising wife Mahbuba Ara had almost taken over the family by her earning from the income out of the stitching and making creative homeware like embroidered quilts, bed sheets, baby napkins, acrylic cushions, covers,  window curtains, sofa covers, embroidered pillow covers, mats, Rihal (for reading the holy Quran) and various home decors and souvenir/ show pieces as well as fashionable utility home gadgets.

Her creative works first drew attention of the members of BAF officers’ family welfare center of Patenga. With appreciations came her enterprising success. But all that she used to excel were in a limited scale, working at home. She did not have some bulk money worth of investing to increase her small maiden enterprise. Just at this time a noble intervention came by the grace of Almighty. She got a membership of Islami Bank RDS Area No. 3 , Center No. 34 (Hazrat Ayesha R.A. Center) with a weekly savings of Tk 50.00. In 2019 she was granted a RDS investment worth Tk 20,000.00 and with that a favorable wind started blowing on her small enterprising sail and ever since then she had not to look back.

The first thing she endeavored is to engage a member of neighborly housewives in this maiden craftmanship. She bought basic components and accessories and trained the neighbors for needlework and started the collection initiatives, paying them reasonably for from design up to finished products. She now have her own showroom in addition to her neighborhood sales base, especially among the BAF officers families. Her RDS annual investment slabs kept increasing from Tk 20 thousand to Tk 80 thousand and now she is running an investment portfolio of Tk. 1.2 lakh. Her RDS savings grew to Tk. 22 thousand to Tk. 80 thousand plus a DPS worth Tk. 10.00 plus. “ I am grateful to Islami Bank for granting me a startup capital, said Mahbuba Ara in profound gratitude. At the same time, she expresses her gratefulness to the NGO for training her and the BAF family welfare center for their priceless encouragement. Their only son is now studying at Agrabad Commerce College. Both the son, and his father, now a retired seaman, often come in assistance of Mahbuba Ara’a maiden business. Apart from manufacturing and collective marketing of handicrafts, she herself runs an online shopping platform for her handicrafts. Her ambition is to engage more women to devote their time and energy into enterprising mainstream and get self reliant.