She Learned to Earn, Then Learned to Stand Strong

A Rohingya woman turns skills into income in Cox’s Bazar

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh — The wall mat hanging in Nur Bahar's shelter did not come from a market. She made it herself, from fabric strips she bought with her own money, cut with her own hands, and stitched together on the floor of the same small space where, not long ago, she sat and waited for others to provide.

Nur Bahar, 50, supports a family of six in the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, including her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. For years, support meant stretching what little arrived and managing the daily strain of a woman responsible for everything, but with little of her own.

Like many Rohingya women living in displacement, opportunities to earn or learn were limited. Survival depended on aid, and decisions about the future often felt out of reach.

“I did not know anything before,” she says quietly. “I stayed at home and depended on others.”

Even small expenses felt unreachable. She has a thyroid condition. When she needed medicine, she had to ask. "If I needed money for medicine, it was difficult," she said with the flat precision of someone describing a fact they have long accepted.

She accepted it, until someone came to her door and offered her a different possibility.

Volunteers from a Women-Led Community Centre visited her block, speaking to women about a free, three-month skills training programme. Nur Bahar was uncertain. Leaving home, even for a few hours, even for something that might help, was not something she was accustomed to doing.

But the idea stayed with her. "If I learn something, maybe I can help my family," she said.

The technical training she joined is supported by UNFPA through the Rising Together project, funded by Switzerland. Over 120 hours, participants learn practical vocational skills,  tailoring, handicrafts, tie-dye, block-batik,  but the programme is designed around more than technique. 

Before needles are threaded or fabric is cut, participants sit together in structured sessions that address child marriage, women's rights, gender-based violence, and where to go for help. For many women, it is the first time these subjects have been spoken aloud in a room they feel safe in.

“These sessions helped me understand things I never knew before,” Nur Banar shared. “Now I know where to go if someone needs help.”

She chose handicraft training so she could make items such as wall mats, bags and other stitched products from her shelter, without needing expensive tools. At first, she doubted herself.

“I thought I could not do it,” she said.

But with encouragement from trainers and peers, she kept going. Then she sold her first item.

"I felt very happy," Nur Bahar said

Today, she buys raw materials from the local market, produces items from her shelter and sells them within the camp. The income is modest, but it has changed her daily life. She contributes to household expenses, buys food and pays for her own medicine.

"I can go to the camp market myself," she said. "If I don't have money, who will give it to me? Now I have it."

Her role within the family has shifted as well. Nur Bahar shared that her family respects her more, and she feels more confident in making decisions. “I feel good,” she added. “I can support my family.”

In the Rohingya camps of Cox’s Bazar, where women and girls make up more than half of the refugee population and formal employment is legally restricted, projects like Rising Together are helping women build skills, confidence and new sources of income from within their homes and communities.

Nur Bahar is one of 44 participants who have started earning through home-based work after completing skills training under the Rising Together project. In its first year, the programme provided training to 252 individuals and reached more than 62,000 people through integrated services delivered via Women Friendly Spaces and Adolescent and Youth Centres.

Change does not always come easily. In conservative settings, even leaving home to attend a nearby training can be difficult for women. Project teams work with families and community leaders to build trust and show, through results, what is possible.

"I tell other women: if you learn, it will help you," Nur Bahar said. "You can earn something and support your family." She has started teaching neighbours informally,  showing them how to cut and stitch, encouraging them to join the next training cohort. The programme did not ask her to do this. She decided to.

She wants to keep learning. More skills mean more work for Nur Bahar to engage in. 

“If we return one day, I will continue this work there too," Nur Bahar said with hope.

The Rising Together project is funded by Switzerland through SDC and implemented by UNFPA. In its first year, it delivered integrated services, skills development, GBV prevention, sexual and reproductive health, and psychosocial support to more than 62,000 individuals across Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char.