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Twenty-seven-year-old Halima is a woman with big plans. From humble beginnings, she finished an electronics course at UCEP, the Underprivileged Children’s Educational Programmes in Bangladesh, proudly supported by UK aid.

Fast forward 15 years: she now works in a private firm in the electronics sector as a quality controller.

The UCEP training had a big impact on Halima – not only her skills – but on her whole outlook.

“After my training at UCEP, I got a job straight away. I felt that if I could get this type of job with this training, what else could I do?”

So she decided to enrol for a 4 year diploma in electrical engineering.

“After the diploma, I saw I could get another type of job, so why not enrol for a full BSc in engineering, so that I can get an even better job?”

And so it continued. Now Halima is a proud BSc student due to graduate in 2016. “My dream is to complete a master’s degree in electronics in Australia.”

Family pioneer

Halima is the youngest of 6 siblings. She has 3 older sisters who were all married at a young age. Like many girls from poor families in Bangladesh she used to do handicrafts as a child to help boost the family income.

Much of this intricate work – known as karchupi – is labour intensive and attracts very low pay, an estimated 240 taka (about £2.12) per 20 hours of work.

“If I didn’t get the chance to enter UCEP, I would have missed the chance of education. We were 6 brothers and sisters and actually our father did not have a big income so we had a very struggling situation,” she says.

“Our biggest brother who had BA honours from a university took responsibility for the family.

“One day our brother’s friend informed him that I could be admitted into UCEP for 30 taka per year.

“So I visited UCEP and saw the electronics classes, heard about the job opportunities and decided that it was a good idea. I took the examination and came second out of the girls.”

Business and beyond

Now Halima is married and lives with her husband in Savar near Dhaka.

Not content with her ambition in her studies, she is thinking about starting a new business in dress making, handicrafts and importing dresses from India.

“One day I’d like to start my own shop,” she says. We can’t wait to see what she’ll do next.

About UCEP

The UK supports the UCEP programme in Bangladesh alongside other international donors including the Save the Children, Citi Bank NA, Australian High Commission, GIZ with many other local corporations, the private sectors and the Government of Bangladesh. DFID has provided a £20 million programme over 4 years.

The programme’s purpose is to provide urban, poor, working children and youth especially girls and women with basic education, vocational skills training and the chance to gain employment in market led technical areas.