Contact Admin. Sacred Mark began in , as a job creation program under MCC. Austin spent a lot of his time here in their early days, helping to design the packaging for the handmade soap they were making and setting up booths at local fairs.
The initial women all came as graduates from Pobitra and held such a special place in our hearts. Sacred Mark is run by a dear friend, Deepa. We were welcomed into their workshop and sat down with her to hear how things are going. After a lovely snack of rice pudding and cha Black tea with lots of milk and sugar , we toured the soap-making rooms and then up the stairs to where they have added Khanta production.
They immediately started telling some of the newer women about the shenanigans a certain one of my sons used to get into. You can read more about Sacred Mark here , including the full poem the name comes from. If you are in the US, you can buy Sacred Mark soap here. You can also follow them on Facebook here. Photography courtesy of Adrienne Gerber Photography.
About km North of Dhaka, is the smaller city of Mymensingh. I could hardly wait to share it with my friends. Entering the courtyard of Mennonite Central Committee was like entering another dimension of time and space. Gardens and flowers lined the walkways and a fish pond lay just beyond the bougainvilleas. Pobitra, meaning clean and pure, was begun by MCC as a training program for women who have been trafficked. Some were sold by their husbands, in-laws, or even parents.
Bangladeshi women who have been raped or pimped out are nearly always blamed for what happened to them. Even those who are not literally held captive, are socially held captive because they are seen as spoiled goods and have no other options for employment. Pobitra has welcomed more than women since it started in , giving them a safe place to come to during the day and to learn literacy, health care, basic skills such as sewing, and most importantly, they are given back their dignity.
