We were escorted by my main Uttaran contact Fatima, an wonderful woman who deals with all the development work of the organization, to Khulna, a town 6 hours south of Dhaka by bus.
Shambu and another Uttaran staff member met us at the station and took us to the Uttaran center in Khulna, a reconverted school. There we had dinner by candlelight (the elecrticity went out). After afew minutes I experienced a major star-struk moment- Shahidul Islam, the founder and director of Uttaran, was there! This was like meeting Obama for me. He is an increbidle person whose work has helped thousands of ultra poor, disadvantaged people asserts their rights and gain assets to overcome poverty.
We are staying at a very nice guest house again that Uttaran has set up for us. Today we go into Sathkira, the birth place of Uttaran, to see a bunch of their programs firsthand and survey the area to determine what we want to focus on for the documentary.
More to come soon, and photos of our new Uttaran friends will be up later today.
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ReplyDeleteLauren: the photos were spectacular. we are both immensely proud of you and envious of your adventure. Stella says hi and we send our love the booomermom and the wynnewood home set
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