When wages in Ukhiya and its adjacent area started declining after Rohingya influx, Ms Khurshida found it difficult to run her family expenditure with the income of her day laborer husband. In a desperate move, the middle-aged women explored several ways to cope with the hardship.
At that time, Ultra-Poor Graduation Programme (UPG) of BRAC came as rescuer.
The largest non-government organisation (NGO) provided her with a grant to buy an ox and also gave her training on its rearing.
BRAC, having 20 years of experience on implementation of UPG, has already worked with more than 2.1 million women to lift them out of poverty.
It launched UPG scheme in Ukhiya and Cox's Bazar to back up the poverty-stricken host community after Rohingyas entered the area.
In collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), BRAC rolled out its flagship UPG programme in Ukhiya and Cox's Bazar in 2018.
The programme helped increase per capita monthly household income by 29 per cent of the people who received its grant-based intervention.
A joint impact assessment conducted by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in association with the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) and the local administration of Cox's Bazar, on July 25, 2019, shows that mean wages of all labourers declined from Tk 417 pre-influx to Tk 357 post-influx, or a decline of 14 per cent in Teknaf and 6.0 per cent in Ukhiya.
Ms Khurshida, of Bhalukia Palong village of Ukhiya, said the Rohinga community started working at lower wages than that of her husband who worked as carpenter.
"In the last two years, I have been able to improve financial state of my family. Now, I own a teal-stall," she told this correspondent.
She got an ox worth Tk24,000 and sold it at Tk 70,000 after six months.
"So far I have been able to sell four heifers and four goats. I also took loan from BRAC twice to expand my cattle house," she said.
According to World Bank, a person living on less than US$ 2.15 a day is catagorised as ultra-poor, who have limited skills and assets, chronic food insecurity, lack of access to financial services etc.
Josna Begum, once an ultra-poor woman of the village, also got two assets---land and goat---as grant under the UPG programme two years back. She has purchased a tea-stall with Tk0.2 million in recent time.
Josna Begum and her husband started agriculture work by leasing land with the grant of BRAC's UPG programme.
"I took Tk50,000 loan from BRAC to lease agriculture land for production of vegetables, rice etc," she said.
Fatima Begum, another beneficiary of the programme, has sent her husband abroad after she could upgrade her financial state from ultra-poor by rearing cow, granted by UPG.
"Once, I was in a psychological pressure from my husband to bring money from her parents to run family expenditure," she said.
With the support of UPG programme, her family has also graduated from ultra-poor state.
"My husband sends Tk45,000 per month from abroad," she said.
Like Khurshida, Josna and Fatima, the UPG has raised new hopes for a total of 2,000 people of the ultra-poor community in the Bhalukiya Palang village of Ukhiya. Pilot project has also been launched for establishing a link between the beneficiaries and the market.
A cost benefit analysis of BRAC found return of Tk1.0 investment doubled to Tk 2.72 to Tk 2.76 on ultra-poor.
Impact evaluation of BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) found graduation rate of 96 per cent under the UPG programme.
Upoma Mahbub, senior manager of UPG programme, said the BRAC staff members are not only disbursing grants but also developing small skills and parting training to utilise the fund properly.
"Even, we sometimes helped them to buy heifers and provided free-of-cost cattle food," she said.
She expressed hope to expand the programme across the country in a broader scale.
Palash K Das, director of the UPG programme, BRAC, said linking ultra-poor women with the market in humanitarian context started on pilot basis which would be expanded in future.
"Ensuring access to the market for Ultra poor women; and strengthening the linkages of their products with both input and output markets are critical elements of our interventions. These approaches not only ensure the long term sustainability but also promote social cohesion in the communities," he said.
doulotakter11@gmail.com