At 35, in Laksham, Cumilla, in southeastern Bangladesh, Shilpi begins her day at a local footwear workshop, not as a customer, but as an apprentice learning the craft of shoe repairing and manufacturing. For generations, this trade has been dominated by men, but Shilpi is proving that skill and resilience know no gender.Shilpi’s path to this workshop was shaped by hardship. Married at a young age and later widowed, she was left to raise two children with a very limited income. To survive, she began repairing shoes door to door. While the work provided a minimum earning of BDT 200 (USD 1.64) a day and exposed her to ridicule for stepping into “a man’s job.” The stigma was crushing, but Shilpi refused to give up.

20-year-old Silvia Dio is quietly rewriting what’s possible, one cup of coffee at a time. Her small coffee stall is not just a shop; it is an innovation in these hills, where such ventures are rare and almost unheard of among the Garo. One of only two shops in the entire union, Silvia’s café has quickly become a landmark and a hub of community life. Every evening, as the sun sets behind the hills, neighbours gather at her stall to share laughter, stories, and steaming cups of coffee, transforming what was once a quiet corner into a vibrant meeting place.

Despite the trauma and isolation, Ayesha didn’t give up. She found a lifeline through SWAPNO, a social empowerment initiative implemented by UNDP and supported by the Government of Bangladesh, the Embassy of Sweden, and Marico Bangladesh. SWAPNO works to economically empower ultra-poor women through public works employment, life skills, and financial literacy training. Starting in public maintenance work, she received life skills and financial literacy training. Within a year, she saved from her modest salary and launched a small clothing business, stitching together not just garments, but a new future.