Dinajpur Mala Rani was born in 2005 in the Rangamati village of Phulbari Upazila in Dinajpur District. Her mother is Nani Bala and her father is Probhas Chandra. Mala Rani is the only child of her parents, and her childhood and adolescence were spent with her mother’s affection and love. Even though she knew she had a father, Mala did not receive any fatherly love.

As Mala grew up, she learned from her mother that her father had a strong wish for her to be a son, believing that “all our pain and suffering would one day go away.” The day she was born, he learned she was his daughter. That very day, he left the house and never returned. Since then, her mother has raised her to the best of her ability. Nani Bala told her, “My daughter, don’t speak of your father anymore. I heard he remarried in Ambari and started a new family.”

With Nani Bala’s efforts, Mala Rani passed her SSC examination. After that, due to poverty, her studies stopped. Nani Bala has a tin-roofed mud house on 0.06 acres of land, and the family consists of three members: her elderly mother-in-law, Nani Bala, and Mala Rani. Nani Bala works as a day laborer to sustain her life and family. Mala Rani is now grown up and works with her mother as a day laborer to alleviate her mother’s suffering.

Since Nani Bala’s husband is ‘there, yet not there,’ she cannot take out loans from an NGO. BASIC, a local organization, learned all the facts and, for humanitarian reasons, gave them a twenty-thousand-taka loan. With that money, Nani Bala bought a cow, and the loan has now been repaid. Nani Bala and Mala Rani both save twenty-five taka weekly, which they use to overcome hardships when needed.

One day, Mala Rani spoke to Rajen Mardi, the Field Organizer for BASIC. She said, “Dada (Brother/Sir), you helped my mother by giving her a loan. Could you help me a little too?” Rajen asked what kind of help she wanted. Mala Rani replied, “You offer many training programs. If you have a tailoring training for girls, please enroll my name.”

“I want to take tailoring training and become a skilled tailor. I want to sew clothes for everyone in the village to reduce my mother’s suffering. With your help, I, Mala Rani, want to earn like the boys and take care of my mother in her old age. I want to establish myself in society as Mala Roy. I want to get married after becoming self-employed.” With the assistance of the Bangladesh NGO Foundation, Mala Rani successfully completed a three-month tailoring training program at the BASIC organization and has since created her own self-employment.