Growing up as an indigenous person, I faced demeaning questions from peers at school and university about my food, language, and culture that always set me apart from others. I felt stressed answering questions like, “Do you eat snakes?” I was born to a middle-income Garo family and could pursue my education without hardship. Still, around me, I saw how discrimination and financial barriers kept many children from my community out of school. For many indigenous families in Bangladesh, education remains a luxury.
After completing my master’s in Agricultural Economics from Bangladesh Agricultural University, I joined Teach for Bangladesh as a Fellow. I wanted to learn about our education sector and gather hands-on teaching-learning and leadership experience to ensure quality education for disadvantaged and indigenous communities like my own. The Fellowship helped me to sharpen my leadership skills. It taught me to overcome challenges with creative solutions and to make learning fun and engaging for children.
In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, I started a project that delivered much-needed workbooks to children in underserved communities with four of my co-Fellows. We successfully delivered customized workbooks to 2,500 students from 40 schools, including students of my community, enabling children to keep learning at home. Being able to make this contribution to children’s education has inspired me to engage further with national initiatives and achieve something more significant for my community.
After completing the Fellowship, I joined the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as an intern. I am currently working on an assignment to explore the potential supply chain for agricultural products from indigenous communities of Bangladesh. Indigenous people pursue sustainable livelihoods and have unique food systems adapted to their ecosystems. Unfortunately, despite being the primary food producers in their areas, they do not always get a fair price at the marketplace. This discrimination forces them into poverty, a situation aggravated by the pandemic.
As an Agricultural Economist and a Teach For Bangladesh Alumna, I advocate for equal opportunities for all in both the education and agriculture sectors. Today, I am working to find the problems, challenges, and possible solutions to improve the network between my community and the marketplace through research, and to empower my people to make informed economic decisions. Together, we are working on a new social contract that will lead to social and economic benefits for indigenous peoples of our country for generations to come.