Shundor Jewellery
Shundor means Beautiful in Bengali. I have been working on a jewellery making project for the girls at my drop in centres. The girls are aged between 10- 15 years and have run away from home due to abuse or poverty. If it wasn’t for our centres the girls would be living on the street, or employed as domestic help or sex workers.

Domestic helpers here in Bangladesh have very little rights, They are often locked inside their employers homes and paid approx $20 a month or less. They cook and clean from early in the morning to late at night, receive hardly any holidays or other benefits and often sleep on the hard kitchen floor. There is a high rate of mental and physical abuse.There is also a high suicide or apparent suicide- rate of girls jumping from rooftops. Because of the location of their work, ie inside a family home it is a very hard industry to regulate and monitor.

Our girls at the centre lack long term vision and so have a high drop out rate from the vocational courses we put them through. I introduced the concept of making jewellery as it is quick and fast to learn and make and the girls seemed to like it. The project is an attempt to give the girls another skill and to supplement their income. The girls where have made the jewellery, the packaging and we have involved them in discussions about marketing techniques. Last week I sold some of their earrings and collected nearly $100- not bad for Bangladesh. The girls also enjoyed modeling and wearing the earrings. I will be selling some of the jewellery when I get back to Sydney shortly so you will be able to look beautiful too.