Symbiosis International is a registered Australian charity helping to transform the lives of Bangladesh’s poorest people for over 20 years.
Despite significant improvements over this time, over 21 million Bangladeshis continue to live in extreme poverty.
We believe that with the right tools and support, even the most impoverished and marginalised people of Bangladesh can be empowered to overcome poverty by working together.
Empowered to empower others – Atu Banu’s story
When Atu Banu first joined a Symbiosis group eleven years ago, she worked in road gangs with her husband. They would dig dirt, smash bricks by hand for road base, and carry huge loads on their heads. She could neither read nor write.
Now, Atu Banu is a successful small business woman and chair of the Golap Mohila Community Based Organisation, where she negotiates with local Government officials to seek benefits and improvements for her community, including starting new groups.
Atu Banu wants to empower other woman and girls just as she has been empowered through a Symbiosis Group. “In the past, women stayed at home. Now with the advent of these groups, women go out and do things. They are empowered.”
While Symbiosis operates groups for both women and men, approximately 90% of Symbiosis Groups are currently made up of empowered women like Atu Banu.
Join us in empowering women like Atu Banu to learn, save and grow their way out of poverty by working together.
What We Do
Symbiosis works within communities with those who are illiterate and landless, mainly women in rural areas, and other disadvantaged groups such as ethnic minorities and people with disabilities.
Connect those in greatest need to a Symbiosis Group to gain a functional education while learning to save and equipping them for future opportunity.
Partner with Community Based Organisations to assist them to become change agents in their community, while supporting them to increase their economic capacity.
Provide vocational training in both urban and rural skills for adults, to enable income generation opportunities. Facilitate education pathways for children.
Facilitate access to primary health-care including maternal health, eye care and disability support, as well as providing access to clean water
Our Impact
By working together for good, your support in 2018 has helped to empower tens of thousands of the poorest people of Bangladesh to develop innovative ways to tackle poverty within their families and communities.
Check out what we achieved together over the last year in our latest annual report.
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