DECEMBER NEWSLETTER - NW BANGLADESH

exciting competitions,

and fun cultural

activities. But it wasn’t

all just work! The

volunteers also enjoyed

a BBQ party with youth club members beside

the river. Read on to

find out more, and to

hear about what we’ve

got planned next.

By James Walker

.

Welcome to the

second Newsletter

round-up from the ICS

Entrepreneur team in

Rangpur, Northwestern

Bangladesh. After much

p r e p a r a t i o n a n d

anticipation, 32 youth c l u b m e m b e r s

successfully graduated

from a three day

business development

and entrepreneurship

t r a i n i n g c o u r s e ,

delivered in conjunction

with a number of

experts from renowned

universities and NGOs,

as well as successful

female entrepreneurs

from in and around the

district. The team has been busy building and

improving on our

market survey, running

market visits and

interviews in Rangpur

and Dhaka. We held two

successful Community

Action Days, the first of

which was an open

blood grouping day,

s u g g e s t e d b y community members

themselves, where 166

people discovered their

blood type. Second, we

held an environmental

awareness day with

children in classes one

through four, with

i n t e r e s t i n g t a l k s ,

Empowering young women and improving livelihoods

through enterprise

A blood grouping community action

day was held on the 16th November.

With the help of youth club

members and PNGO’s, we ran the

blood grouping session from 8am to

5pm at Payrabond Kendrio Sohid

Minar.

In the morning of the blood

g r o u p i n g d a y , t h e I C S E

(International Citizen Service

Entrepreneur) volunteers and the

local volunteers had work

distributed amongst them. ICSE

volunteer Salim worked with

Mowsumi, who is one of youth club

members, at the registration table.

(Continued on Pg.2)

7TH DECEMBER 2014 ISSUE 2

ICS ENTREPRENEUR

Inside this issue:

Blood Grouping

CAD

1

Environmental

Awareness CAD

2

Business Develop-

ment Training

3

Assessment Cen-

tre

4

Interview with

Business develop-

ment training par-

ticipant

6

Market Survey 6

Our first get to-

gether!

8

Coming Soon 8

ENTREPRENEUR

Business Development Training Course

Blood Grouping Community

Action Day

Vice principle of Rangpur Medical College

They were responsible for

entering the name of the

beneficiary on a blood group

card before passing it to the

pathologists who would then test

the blood group. Tajul and Mukta were other Youth club

members who helped with this

process. On another side, James,

Kat, Rita and Mani (ICSE

volunteer) worked to maintain

the people in a first come first

served fashion.

The vice principle of Rangpur

Medical College was chaired at

the blood grouping day and

gave a valuable speech titled:

“Why knowing your blood

group is important?”

It noticed that a 75 year old man

came to know his blood group. This man showed off his interests

and asked me about the periods

of blood donation. His curiosity

caused me to take a long breath.

Finally, when we counted the

number of beneficiaries that had

the opportunity to test their

blood group. We found 166

beneficiaries got the opportunity

to test their blood group, which

was a great success.

By Habibur Rahman Bin Hamid

Blood Grouping Community Action Day (continued)

Rokeya Memorial govt

primary school in

Payrabanh, Mithapukur,

Rangpur. We arranged a

drawing competition

about how the students want to see their

environment, a general

k n o w l e d g e q u i z

competition, true-false

game on environmental

issue and cultural

activities. Students of

class one, two, three,

and four were our main

participants and they

were near about one hundred and forty in

number. And the winner

was given special prizes

for each field of

competition. We, with

the help of local youth

c l u b m e m b e r

volunteers, facilitated

the program very well.

W e s t a r t e d t h e

scheduled activities of

the day with the national

anthem of Bangladesh at

9:00 am. Then Jahangir

Choudhury, executive

director of Payrabandh

Jono kolan Unnoyon

Songshtha (PJKUS), a

local partner NGO of

V S O B a n g l a d e s h

inaugurated the day with

a motivational speech.

Then we started our

main activities. At first,

we showed a PowerPoint

presentation on the

Environmental

Awareness CAD

On the 26th of November

2014 we, VSO ICSE

volunteers (the UK and

national volunteers),

arranged a community

a c t i o n d a y o n environmental clean-up

awareness in Begum

Page 2

ICS ENTREPRENEUR

e n v i r o n m e n t a l

a w ar en e ss i s su e s .

National volunteer Sibbir

and UK volunteer Mani

facilitated the session.

Then national volunteer

Salim with UK volunteer

Christopher and James

Walker facilitated a true-

f a l s e g a m e o n

environment issues and

general knowledge

about the environment.

Then we arranged our

m a i n d r a w i n g

competition on how they

Students busy producing their drawings for the competition

Habib running the True and False game

Pathologist testing a woman’s blood group

want to see their

environment. We made

four group from each

class. Every participant

was given an art paper

and colouring pencil

with other necessary

equipment for the

drawing competition.

Students were very

Environmental Awareness CAD (continued)

Page 3

ISSUE 2

Business Development Training

On 26th-29th November

2014, 15 members of

Chowdary youth club

and 17 members from

Bazlar Rahmen youth

club attended Business

Development Training,

introducing the basic

principles of both

b u s i n e s s a n d

entrepreneurship. The 3

day training course

consisted of sessions

delivered by experts in

the relevant subject

f i e l ds an d loc al s u c c e s s f u l

entrepreneurs.

On day 1, Md. Humayun

K a b i r , A s s i s t a n t

Professor at Begum

Rokeya University,

introduced the concept

of entrepreneurship,

followed by Sajal Roy,

also from Begum Rokeya

U n i v e r s i t y , w h o

delivered an engaging

session on women in entrepreneurship. Samsi

Ara Koli, from Shushi

Shali Handicrafts, our

first local entrepreneur,

gave an inspirational

talk on her personal

e x p e r i e n c e s a n d

challenges she faced

while on her journey to

become the successful

entrepreneur she is

today.

On day 2, Jalal Uddin, BSCIC pr odu ct ion

officer, delivered an

introduction to Business

Planning, and Begum

Rokey a Univer sit y

lec tur er s, Kuntala

Chowdhury and Omar

F a r u k , d e l i v e r e d

sessions det ai l ing

M i c r o f i n a n c e a n d

Funding, and Legal

aspects of enterprise

and HR.

Rumi, a successful

entrepreneur from

Rangpur, shared her

personal success story

i n b e c o m i n g a

successful entrepreneur

excited about the

drawing competition. At

11:30 we arranged

s n a c k s f o r t h e

p a r t i c i p a n t s a n d

volunteers. Everyone

was given an apple, an

orange and a banana as

t he snack. Then

participants were given

a break of fifteen

minutes. At that time

nat ional volunteer

Rakib, Habib, Sibbir

with the UK volunteer

Kat, Mani, and James

selected the final winner

of the competition.

Youth club members

Golap, Mamun, Rayhan,

Kanon, Masum, Saddam,

Mousumi, Masmud

helped us a lot to

facilitate the program.

Then we arranged a

c u l t u r a l pr o g r a m .

Students of class one,

two, three and four sang,

r e c i t e d p o e t r y ,

performed classical

dance routines and did

group performances. We

then arranged our prize

g i v i n g c e r e m o n y .

Teachers of the school

distributed the prizes

among the winners. Thus

w e e n d e d o u r

community action day

with a festive mood.

By Salem Hossen Class 3 girls performing a classic Bangla dance

Kuntala Chowdhury delivering Micro-finance session

w h i l e o v er c o m i n g m a n y

difficulties, facing resistance from

her family, and raising her young

child alone after the untimely

death of her husband. Rumi also

advised the audience of how to

ensure they select the perfect

product.

On the final day of training,

expert Md. Harun-Or-Rosid, Begum Rokeya University

Lecturer, provided the attendees

with tips of how to maintain

accurate records and accounts.

This afternoon also saw two

further successful entrepreneurs

share their success stories. Shahnaz Shahin also advised on

how she manages her production

p l a n n i n g a n d b u s i n e s s

organisation and Anowarar

Ferdousi Poly, President of

Womens Chamber of Commerce

and owner of Bibiyana Beauty

Parlour, discussed both her

experience and knowledge of

Local business setting and

procedure.

Motivation, networking skills and

marketing were also covered during the course.

All 32 participants successfully

c o m p l e t e d t he bu s i n e s s

development course and a

celebration event will be held on

16th December 2014.

By Kat Foy

Business Development Training (Continued)

planning, Motivation,

N u m e r i c a l s k i l l s ,

C o m m u n i c a t i o n ,

Teamwork, Networking,

Visionary thinking,

Commercial awareness, Presentation skills and

Risk taking ability. The

two tasks were run

simultaneously with 15

people participating in

each task with the ICSE

team split into two sub-

teams to facilitate each

task. Task 1 was a Paper

Bag making exercise

which was designed to

s imu lat e a smal l

business that had

supplier, production and buyer stations. Each

team were given a

starting capital with

which they had the

freedom to buy tools and

raw materials to produce

the bags. The trainees

were required to work in

The Assessment Centre

On the 29th of November

we held an assessment

centre to end our 3 day

Business Development

Training course. The

assessment centre consisted of two tasks

which would determine

the training participants

that would be shortlisted

for the interview stage of

t h e e n t r e p r e n e u r

selection process. Our

t e a m s et e le v en

dimensions to identify

o u r p r o m i s i n g

candidates which were:

L e a d e r s h i p ,

O r g a n i s a t i o n a n d

Page 4

ICS ENTREPRENEUR

their teams to design

bags and negotiate a

good selling price with

the buyer to maximise

profits. Task 2 was

related to our business

Group picture of Business development training graduates

Task 2 being presented by a candidate and assessed by Rita

development training

topics and was designed

to test what the candidates

learnt over the 3 days.

The candidates worked under limited time

constraints to plan a

poster presentation in a

team of 5 which they

would then present to the

rest of the candidates.

Task 1 was facilitated by

James, Mani, Salim, Rakib,

Chris and Ziaul (Project

Officer) and Task 2 was

facilitated by Sibbir,

Habib and Rita.

The assessment centre

was an enjoy able

experience for the

training participants as

well as our ICSE team who

facilitated it. Although

t h e r e s o m e t i m e

constraints on the day, we

were still able to

successfully run the tasks

and as a result some

interesting bag designs

were created for Task 1

a n d g r e a t p o s t e r

presentations for task 2.

The assessment centre

was supposed to help

distinguish our potential

entrepreneur candidates

from the rest of the

trainees which we

believe it did.

The Assessment Centre (continued)

Page 5

ISSUE 2

NETWORKING TIPS

1. Make an effort to remember somebody’s name when you meet them.

Try a memory technique. Link their name to a hobby of theirs, something you notice about their appearance, their accent, a particular habit, where you met them, what they

do for a living, etc.

“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the

sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

2. Always follow up when you meet a new person

Whenever you meet a new person, make the effort to stay in touch, even if the connection isn’t useful to your business at that current moment in time. Take their business card, and send them a short email to tell them it was nice to meet

them.

3. Get rid of anything that might distract you when meeting a new person

For example, turn off your phone when going to a business

meeting, or put your watch in your pocket.

4. Greet everybody you meet with a heart-warming smile :)

A smile tells people you’re pleased to meet them, you’re interested to hear their story, and that you have a positive and upbeat attitude. A simple trick, but an extremely power-

ful one.

5. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

Listen intently. “There is no mystery about successful busi-ness intercourse. Exclusive attention to the person who is speaking to you is very important. Nothing else is so flatter-

ing as that.” - Charles W. Eliot

6. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests

“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated” — William James. Show genuine interest in the other person’s wants, likes and desires. This will not only make you stand out and make people you meet like you but is a very useful principle to deal with people from all

areas of your life.

7. Stay positive. Don’t complain or criticise

When you focus on the positive aspects of a business rela-tionship and ignore the negative feelings you will find that you will slowly get more out of your business relationships

“take the good, leave the bad”

Top: Candidates at production station, Bottom left: Candidates sell-ing produced bags to buyer (James), Bottom right: Collection of pro-duced bags

Page 6

The Begum Rokeya

complex was packed

between the 27th and 29th

of November with 32

enthusiastic youth club

m e m b e r s f r o m Kardomuradpur and

Bazlur Rahman Youth

Clubs. They gathered at

this location – which is

named after such an

influential teacher – to

learn about business and

entrepreneurship. After

this training I sat down

with Mahmudul Hasan of

Bazlur Rahman youth

club to get his opinion

on the event.

Prior to the training

M a h m u d u l w a s

concerned as he didn’t

know much about

e n t r e p r e n e u r s h i p .

However due to his

involvement with the ICS

-E volunteers he had

faith the day would be a

success and help him

understand all the stages

and challenges of

entrepreneurship.

During the training the

I C S - E v o l u n t e e r s

enlisted the help of ten

speakers. These people

are experts in a variety

of fields related to

entrepreneurship. They

came from a variety of

institutions such as

B e g u m R o k e y a University and BSCIC.

Mahmud especially

enjoyed the talks from

current entrepreneurs

such as Koli Apa; who

had lots of real world

experience. Mahmud

explains that the

turbulent and personal

story of Rumi Apa really

inspired him due to the

societal challenges she

had to overcome. Micro-

finance expert Kuntala Apu was very popular as

she was able to deliver

practical details and

advice to such a

c o m p l e x p r o c e s s .

Mahmudul was finally

also impressed with Mr

Rashid’s talk because he

took the complex world

of accounting and made

it accessible.

Although the training’s

aim was to increase the participant’s knowledge

on the world of

enterprise the day also

c o n s i s t e d o f a n

assessment centre,

designed to find those

with the aptitude to be

shortlisted to be an ICS-

E model entrepreneur.

Mahmudul’s first task

consisted of working in a

team to create bags out

of everyday items such

a s n e w s p a p e r . Mahmudul explains that

this was the most fun task

of the training but it was

also the hardest as trying

to innovate on the classic

bag concept proved

tricky.

Interview with Business

D e ve l o p m e n t T r a i n i n g

Participant, Mahmudul

W h e n M a h m u d u l

considered how this

training would impact

his future he believed

the concepts discussed

in training will help with

his future business

studies degree he is set

to start in January. He

also looks forward to the

graduation party on the

16th of December.

B y Chr is to pher J.

Colquhoun

ICS ENTREPRENEUR

Mahmudul negotiating with the Buyer (James) in the Bag making game, which was Task

Market Survey

A crucial part of the

project is advising the

chosen entrepreneurs on

w h i c h h a n d i c r a f t

products to produce and

which markets to sell

them to. This means the

initial market research

can shape the type of

handicraft enterprise

that will be built and

ultimately determine its

success. The initial

market survey was

conducted by observing

and interviewing several

handicraft shops in

Rangpur City. Much can

be learnt from simply

entering a shop and

browsing the range of

products it has to offer;

one can deduce which

products are most

popular and the price

there are sold at.

Although not as reliable,

interviewing the shop

keeper can reveal other

useful aspects of the

business such as

costings associated with

making a product and a

p r o d u c t ’s s e l l i n g

performance to name

but a few. We found that

the Jute material,

otherwise known as the

‘Golden Fibre’, was the

most common material

used for Handicrafts. Its

uses ranged from bags

and baskets to mats and

cushions. Wood and

coconuts were fairly

common too, however

these materials were

u s e d m o r e f o r

showpiece items.

Market Survey (continued) Page 7

ISSUE 2

The results from our initial market

survey showed that the following

handicraft products were the most

p o pu l ar an d s hou ld b e

considered for a preliminary

shortlist: Jute bags, jute wallets/

purses, jute mats and cushions,

jute baskets and jewellery. It was

noticeable that the most popular

handicraft products were ones

which offered a functionality as

well as looking attractive with the

exception of Jewellery. Handicraft

Jewellery is often in high demand

and can be made and sold at low

prices using materials like beads,

string, wood and plastic which

makes it a desirable product

choice. Looking more at the

international trends, which are

more up and coming in

Bangladesh cities, we added Jute

lampshades and Jute espadrilles

to the tentative shortlisted

products.

Focus Group Discussion

By observing the village people

and some of the host homes we

have had the pleasure of staying

at, we were able to get an idea of

the popularity of Handicraft

products in general, which was

generally low. The Focus Group

Discussions carried out on the

Youth clubs of Sadarpur and

Kurdamuradpur verified this and

gave us information about their

likes, dislikes, whether they think

the product is good for the

entrepreneur and associated risk.

The FGD helped narrow our

shortlist to four tentative

handicraft products, the most

popular of which was the Jute bag.

All styles of bags (hand bags,

shoulder bags and rucksacks)

were liked by the focus group and

most members believed it is a

very sellable product. It is more

common in the city but if cost is

kept low it can be sold to a village

market. The second product is

Handicraft Jewellery which limits

our market to mainly females

however there is a good demand

with a great opportunity to

distinguish the product within the

market and potentially set new

fashion trends, increasing market

share. Although more popular

with city goers, some women from

the village also wear handicraft

type jewellery. The third

handicraft product is the Jute

lampshade which would strictly

be marketed towards city homes;

lampshades are becoming an

increasingly popular trend with

many lampshades featuring

minimalistic designs which are

cheap to produce. The fourth

product are Jute espadrilles which

would also strictly be marketed

towards a city market because the

focus group felt they would get

muddy quickly in a village

environment.

The initial market surveying

allowed us to decide our tentative

list of handicraft products

however there are more Focus

group discussions to be

conducted on people from the

city as well as a more in depth

market analysis on city located

handicraft shops.

By Maninderjit Singh Brar

Some of the handicraft products shown to the Focus Group

Handicraft stall at Rangpur trade fair

Though it was a long and

tiring day, we were able

to arrange a successful

party in the night. The

day was our FGD

planning day and we were very busy however

we still wanted to get the

volunteers and the Youth

club members together.

The main aim of the get

together was to build-up

a good relationship

between us all.

After finishing our FGD

activities, Rita and I went

to Rangpur City to do

food shopping with a

Youth club member. Our shopping list consisted

of grill chicken, soft naan

bread, salad and soft

drinks. We finished our

shopping at 6.30pm. Back in the village our

volunteers and YC

members were busy

trying to select the

perfect place for

arranging a picnic. They

chose one of the banks

of the historical Ghaghat

River which flew inside the eastern part of our

community. At first,

some of our volunteers

did not like the place too

much but once we had

the fire going, everyone

was much happier.

Getting the fire blazing

was a challenging

experience due to the

lack of dry wood, but

with the persistence of

the youth club members

we were able to get a stable fire going. Then

some of our volunteers

and YC members started

p r e p a r a t i o n s f o r

cooking, particularly

S i b b i r ( n a t i o n a l

volunteer) and Golap

(YC president) done it

very well. Whilst this

was happening the rest

of us helped decorate

the place with a sitting

area and making a

temporary burner to grill the chicken. Finally,

our own national

volunteer Rita and Sibbir

with the help of our own

PJKUS rep Newton took

the responsibility to

cook the chicken.

Everyone seemed to be having a good time

gossiping, making fun

with each other and

dancing. After a while, it

was the time to take

dinner all together.

Although a bit spicy, the

chicken was very tasty

and Rita did a fantastic

job of flavouring the

Chicken. After we had

taken dinner we were

singing, acting and

How was our first get together?

certificated training for

these entrepreneurs, as

well as three days of

shadowing a successful

entrepreneur. After all

this, we’ll hold a graduation ceremony on

Victory Day, officially

presenting the two

entrepreneurs to the

community and giving

certificates to the

business development

training graduates.

We’ll work with the

entrepreneurs to select

their product range,

after finalising a shortlist

of products based on the

market survey, and taking the ideas to a

focus group discussion

with participants from

Rangpur City. We’ll be

c o n s o l i d a t i n g o u r

network of contacts so

far with a “tea party”

meeting to find out

exactly what areas each

potential mentor may be

Coming Soon

So what will the team be

up to next? In Newsletter

3, you’ll be able to read

all about the two

selected entrepreneurs.

We’ll be holding interviews and learning

visits to local factories

w i t h p o t e n t i a l

candidates, and finding

two new entrepreneurs

to take part in the

project. We’ll arrange

Page 8

ICS ENTREPRENEUR

dancing with music and

everyone got involved.

Although the occasion

took a long time to

begin, everyone had a

memorable time at the

BBQ party. The party

helped bring the

volunteers and the YC

members together; in

comparison to before we

all seemed much more

familiar with each other.

By Md. Rakibul Islam

able to help our

entrepreneurs with.

Finally, we’ll hold three

more Community Action

D a y s f o l l o w i n g

brainstorming with the youth club members.

By James Walker