‘Water, light and hope’: A letter from the Jamuna char lands

As a riverine and agrarian country, the people living near the uncompromising, fierce rivers have been accustomed to both its destruction and richness. The story of these people, however, is yet to be discovered and left to be experienced by the people in the urban area.

In a bid to create that bridge, Standard Chartered Bangladesh (SCB) and Friendship have jointly arranged a photo exhibition to give a glimpse of the people living in sedimentary islands (chars).

The exhibition, titled "Water, light and hope", took place at the Ikebana Experience Centre's Gallery 101 in the capital's Gulshan on Wednesday evening on the occasion of International Women's Day. The event aimed to honour the resilient women of char lands.

The photographs in the exhibition centred on the empowerment, entrepreneurship and development of marginalised women living in shifting chars at the heart of the Jamuna and Brahmaputra. 

With little to no access to electricity, education, information and livelihood necessities, thousands of people in the char lands of the Jamuna and Brahmaputra are living a life worth pursuing. They scour the earth to bring us the best of the grains, vegetables, spices, and livestock materials. 

But their smiling faces, soulful gestures, full-of-life crop fields, optimism, resilience and motherly mannerisms when they look at their harvest–brilliantly portrayed in the photographs at the exhibition– nowhere tell the tale of the hardships they endure, rather they only tell the story of triumphs.

The photo exhibition displays the struggles and grit of women living in these hard-to-reach areas and their resilience to overcome daily challenges. Portrayed through the photographs were char women's attainment of financial freedom and independence, acquiring of new skills, employment, education, and participation in health and disaster emergencies.

Reflecting on the event, Naser Ezaz Bijoy, chief executive officer, SCB, said, "These are not just photographs. These are not just stories. These photographs document the reality of the lives of some incredible women, speaking of their courage, resilience, and dignity. These are stories of lives amidst water, light, and hope." 

"Women are driven by commitment, deep self-dignity, empathy, and compassion—herein lies our strength to achieve our goals," said Runa Khan, founder of Friendship. 

"For a woman, efficiency and innovation are daily tools. Women are the strongest instruments for ensuring sustainability and bringing long-term impact into a community. The world today is close to a tipping point. Enormous effort is needed to have a just society.  If we empower women, we will endow humanity with the power to succeed," she added. 

Holding their life at stake and being deprived of their basic needs, the marginalised people, remain untreated for illnesses, their children remain uneducated, and their crops and livestock go underwater every four or six months.

We get accustomed to what we are naturally given and if it's something environmental, natural and familiar to us through generations, then we often acquire the necessary skill set to fight back.

While few people of the world hold on to the privileges of life, some have to sacrifice a lot of themselves just to survive and power through the obstacles, which has long been a reality to the char people. However, does it have to be so difficult for them?

In a bid to somewhat alleviate the hardships of these people, SCB and Friendship have collaborated to help char residents combat the key challenges they face– access to clean drinking water, adequate food supply, proper shade from plants, help in arresting soil erosion, and most importantly access to electricity. 

Their joint endeavours are also implementing a holistic agriculture programme to support residents of 36 hard-to-reach char communities across the northern districts of Kurigram, Gaibandha, and Mymensingh, and in the southern districts of Shaymnagar, Sathkhira, and Patuakhali. 

Under this programme, they deliver sustainable agricultural technologies, training sessions, technical guidance, and market-extension assistance, along with farm mechanisation support, and financial inclusion support to over 7,000 farmers.