Story

Ruma

July 14, 2009 | Pulitzer Center
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Women and children crowd in to see how Ruma shows me her writing.

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Neighbors peek through the window of Ruma’s place.

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“My house is small,” says Ruma in English when we approach her place. She invites me (right) to take a seat on her bed.

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“I love Nari Jibon,” says Ruma.

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Ruma is proud of her writing skills, and shows her exercises in her home.

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Fatima, on the left, helps produce men’s pants in a garment factory eleven hours a day starting at seven in the morning. Today, she got off at one o’ clock.

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Ruma’s daughter-in-law, Lovely, starts work in a garment factory in August. She will sew on buttons. Ruma wants to teach writing and reading to her three-year-old son Rapi.

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Bubbling away in the afternoon: Ruma’s pot of egg curry is on the second flame frome the right in the shared kitchen.

A quiet fragile woman in a bright yellow sari drifts in and out of the doorframe of the computer room. Sixty-five-year old Ruma has been with Nari Jibon since the beginning of the project in March 2005. She helps the tailoring students, brings tea, and welcomes guests at Nari Jibon.