Six months on from the Rana Plaza
building collapse, the ILO is helping survivors develop new skills and find
jobs. Three workers who survived the tragedy talked to ILO News about their way
back into employment.Feature | 24 October 2013
DHAKA (ILO News) – When Minu’s
limp body was piled onto the mass of corpses after Rana Plaza collapsed, she
prayed that someone would notice that she was still alive.
Too weak to call out, she had
been smothered under dead bodies in the rubble without food or water for three
days. As they laid her out in the makeshift mortuary on the Adhur Chandra High-
School playground in Savar, someone heard the faintest of cries and realized
she was still alive.
“As I laid on the school oval, I
thought I could not even make enough noise for someone to notice me. I had
nothing left in me at all – I was just like another one of the bodies in the
pile,” she recalls.
Minu Aktar had been working in
Phantom Apparels on the fourth floor of Rana Plaza for four and a half years.
She still suffers from physical injuries sustained during the collapse, as well
as ongoing trauma, from being trapped under the building.
Skills trainingSix months on,
however, Minu is starting to overcome her grief with the support of her family
and through the ILO’s Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Reform
Project in partnership with BRAC, a major non-governmental organization.
The programme, funded by the
European Union, is equipping survivors with the skills they need to get jobs in
local workplaces.
As a result, Minu is now working
in a tailor’s shop in Savar, mentored by an ILO/BRAC supervisor and master
craftsperson.
“I did not think that I would
ever be able to work again, because of my fear and because of my injuries, but
now I am learning new skills and it feels really good. Tailoring and dress
making is interesting and I have a good supervisor. I am also working together
with another survivor called Khaleda, so we support each other and learn
together,” says Minu.
“Seeing my family, having a job –
I finally feel like I am alive again,” she adds.
A new career pathMijanur Rahman
was a technician in Phantom Apparels on the third floor of Rana Plaza and had
his right leg crushed in the collapse. He wanted to return to work in a factory
but has been unable to because he cannot stand for long periods of time or walk
for long distances.
He is now an apprentice in the
programme, learning to repair mobile phones, a useful trade in a country where
there are over 100 million active mobile phone users.
Trapped between steel rods in the
collapsed building, Mijanur thought he would never be able to get out of the
building, let alone step into a workplace again. Now he is looking forward to
new skills, a new job and a new career path.
“I wanted to return but it was
impossible and I also cannot do other types of jobs so I am happy that I now
have a way to make money. I am learning a lot from the shop owner here. If
there is any problem in a mobile phone set, we can repair it,” he says.
The skills training programme is
based on an existing apprenticeship model, which was adapted to include Rana
Plaza survivors, explains Srinivas Reddy, ILO Bangladesh Country Director:
“The TVET Reform Project has
developed a number of models focusing on better delivery of skills. This
particular model focuses on high employment trades, particularly those found in
regional and rural areas, such as tailoring, motorcycle servicing and mobile
phone repairing. The model fits well with the needs of the survivors because,
in just a short time, it gives people quality skills which they can then use to
enter a sector in which almost all are guaranteed employment.”
Walk into Fashion Tailors in
Savar now and you will be greeted by two smiling tailors – Minu and Khaleda -
working alongside their supervisor and master craftsperson, Shekh Sadi. Not
only is the skills’ training programme giving survivors the opportunity to
learn new skills, but it is also helping them to cope with the tragedy.
In a corner of the shop are
hanging three brightly coloured red and orange dresses with matching scarves,
still waiting to be picked up. But Shekh Sadi knows that the girls he made the
dresses for will never wear them. They died under the rubble of Rana Plaza.
Distressed by the loss of so many
lives, he didn’t know how to help at first. Now, by training Minu and Khaleda,
he is equipping them with the skills to make dresses like these – giving them a
pathway into new jobs.
Source: ILO. 24 October 2013
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