Abdur Rashid is the first-born child to Nurul Islam at the Satpaika village. His father’s earnings from farming were sufficient for the family of five. Thereby he started helping out his father in farming from the ninth standard. He saw that farming was very labor intensive and rather if he could dobusiness. He first started buying and selling wood at a wholesale market. For this business he had to work at sawmills for sizing the woods. This is where he dreamt owning his own saw mill.

In 2021 Abdur met a field officer of Pally Bikash Kendra and communicated his business idea and got familiar with rules and regulations of the organization. Then he got admitted as a member and would do monthly savings. In the meantime, he got married and had two daughters. Currently one of them is enrolled at primary school and the younger one stays at home. He took a loan of 70,000 BDT and started the process of establishing his saw mill business at Shibpur bazaar. At this point he was earning well from both his saw mill and wood business.

After the loan was repaid Abdur took another loan of 110,000 BDT which he invested in his business. He then repaid that and took another loan of 200,000 BDT and used the funds to buy land to build his own house. As a result of this investment his own business struggled a tad bit. However it was during this time when COVID happened and lock down was initiated by the government. Hence, the business was slow and he found it difficult to repay the loans he took. He then spoke to a field officer discussing how he can overcome his situation and then the field officer briefed him about the MDP-AF loan.

The branch manager spoke in detail regarding the MDP-AF and advised him in regards to environment and pollution friendly business practices which will help him to qualify for this loan. The proposal of a 300,000 BDT loan was approved by the branch manager.

Abdur used some of the means to upgrade his wood business and in starting up his furniture business. In addition, he also bought a hybrid buffalo. In about a few days he was successful in cow fattening and started seeing profits from his furniture business. At present a total of eight employees are employed in both of his businesses. Within a span of few years, he found three avenues to earn money – wood, furniture and cow fattening.

Abdur initially earned 15000 BDT every month however, at present he earns 50,000 BDT. Abdur aspires that his daughters will be highly educated and he would expand his business and would be seen as a respectable figure in the society. Abdur is grateful to Pally Bikash Kendra for extending their hand to help during a very crucial period of time of his life.