Building Resilience, Breaking Barriers: Taslima’s Journey

In the village of Moharajpur in Khulna, Taslima Khatun and her family have faced severe climate change impacts, including overflowing rivers, floods, salinity, and droughts. These disasters destroyed her home, displaced her animals, caused food shortages, and led to health problems. Fish enclosures flooded, and vegetable gardens were ruined, leaving Taslima struggling to secure her family’s livelihood.

Despite facing financial hardship and health issues, Taslima remained determined to find a way forward. Her resilience led her to initiate a collective land cultivation scheme with 20 women. They mortgaged land and created a successful venture through crop cultivation. Taslima reinvested her earnings into poultry farming, building a stable foundation for her family. Through the project, she opened her first bank account and learned financial management and banking practices.

The empowerment gained through capacity development training helped Taslima overcome initial obstacles and break down social stereotypes. She learned climate-resilient agriculture and reinvested profits into diverse income sources. The knowledge and support she received allowed her to establish market linkages and start ventures like poultry and vegetable cultivation from her home.

Taslima’s influence spread throughout the community. “I envision a future free from climate vulnerability by building a climate-resilient home and business for my family, especially my daughters,” she shared. Her transformation into a community leader highlights the impact of community-driven action and social empowerment.

Over the past four years, Taslima has not only transformed her life but sparked resilience in her community. She believes that courage, collaboration, and foresight can create lasting change. Taslima continues to work hard to provide her children with proper education, ensuring a better future for them. 

Four years ago, Taslima Khatun was identified as a climate-vulnerable individual by the Local Government Initiative on Climate Change (LoGIC) project, a joint initiative involving the Embassy of Sweden (SIDA), the Embassy of Denmark, UNDP Bangladesh, and UNCDF, implemented by the Local Government Division of Bangladesh. The project aimed to empower climate-vulnerable populations through Climate Adaptive Livelihood Options (CALO) training and funding. The Climate Resilient Fund (CRF) and capacity-building training provided by the project enabled her to embark on an unfamiliar journey into climate-resilient agriculture.