Zarrin Tasnim is a promising youth wearing many hats: a woman, a student, a mother, and an entrepreneur. Travelling 350 kilometres the whole night from Nilphamari, attending the incubation sessions while holding her child in her arms, and becoming one of the winners of Bangladesh Youth Enterprise Competition & Incubation 1.0 was not an easy journey for her.
Zarrin is not only an entrepreneur but also an inspiration to many women in her locality. After having several breakdowns in her personal life after the marriage, Zarrin intended to do something on her own with a capital of BDT 5000 only. Zarrin started working on handicrafts and nakshi products at her home in a remote village of Nilphamari. After getting a good response from the customers, she wanted to involve other women in her locality, but the Covid-19 pandemic did not allow her to do so. As soon as the situation improved, she started to train other women in her area and involve them in production. Besides increasing production, Zarrin’s biggest motivation behind involving the women of her locality was to empower them. She knew there were government training opportunities on handicrafts, but these are very less likely to reach that type of remote area. So, being an educated and trained person, she took it as a responsibility.
Zarrin shared she found Bangladesh Youth Enterprise Competition & Incubation 1.0 different from any other program she has been in. She thinks BYEAH worked as a mentor and guardian throughout that journey. She said she had no idea about terms like product sourcing, perfect marketing, target customer choice etc. While mentioning her learning, she emphasised getting a boost in her leadership skill and mental strength from BYEAH and its facilitators and mentors. Zarrin also expressed her gratitude to BYEAH for giving her much public exposure these few months, which helped her reach the level that would need more than 3 years without BYEAH’s support. Before getting selected for the incubation, she trained more than 200 hundred women from 5-6 villages, but after completing the program, the number of trainees has become more than 600 hundred. With the winning seed fund from BYEAH, Zarrin is building a training centre and showroom near her house to expand her display and training facilities. Her estimated net profit per year will be more than 3000000 BDT once she starts her showroom and training centre.
