Sagufta is a participant at the 3rd Asian Women Entrepreneurs Eid Fair 2006 at the National Shooting Complex at Gulshan that started on October 1, jointly organised by the Women Entrepreneurs Association Bangladesh (WEAB) and Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka.

The objective of the fair is to promote women entrepreneurs from Bangladesh and other Asian countries.

Sagufta was busy attending to her customers, showing them the intricate designs done by herself and her girls and shared her views on the struggles of a woman in trade.

"I started training poor girls in 2004 in block printing and making dresses, and handicrafts and spend 50 percent of the earnings on them. I have 75 girls working with me now," she said.

"This is the first time I participated in an international fair but I have participated in other fairs at national level," she said. She said her participation in Jubomela in 2005 got her the Jubo Award 2005 and was awarded Best Woman Entrepreneur, 2006.

"As I was a born into a conservative family I had to struggle hard to have my work recognised," she said.

"The awards helped me in overcoming the negative attitude adopted by my family. After receiving these awards, the family's stance towards my business changed," said Sagufta, who is also the president of WEAB, Rajbari.

"I started from scratch and now I am well established. I export my products to Canada, United Arab Emirates and Australia, and participate in international fairs," said Zoya Khan, owner, Zoya's Herbal Workshop adding she been 17 years in the business.

"All our handicrafts, dresses, mats, bags, tea-covers and bed sheets are made by the physically challenged people in our centre. We make the puzzles work as hand therapies and the wood varnish on the handicrafts is a kind of treatment for the paralysed. These little tasks help in therapies and their rehabilitation," said Selima Sharmeen Farzana, senior receptionist of Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) and CRP representative at the fair.

There were also cards and gift tags by Lovely, a mouth painter at CRP, who passed away a few years ago at the age of 20.

"This fair started in 2004 and this is its third consecutive year. For the last 10 years I worked for the development of women at grassroots level in Pakistan and developed about 300 women to mid-level," said Roubina Taufiq Shah, commercial secretary, High Commission for Pakistan.

"I worked to give them international exposure and I taught them to produce and to trade. I organised fairs of Women Exporters Network at national level where women from all over Pakistan took part," she said.

"I was instrumental in policy making for women while I was working as an officer at the Export Promotion Bureau in Pakistan. Now we have a strong policy for them," she added.

"When I came to Bangladesh I thought that I should organise a fair for women of this country too. I discussed the possibility with Nasreen Awal Mintoo (president, WEAB) and considered Ramadan the best time because the Eid shopping spree starts around this time," Roubina said.

The first fair had only five women entrepreneurs from Pakistan but this year we have over 20, she added.

"The effort behind their participation is tremendous. We had to wind up their cargo for shipment and organise the whole trip. This is a part of the training. There are also many participating in a fair for the first time. They come here in the hope of getting a good sales and an exposure. The cost here is very low," she further said.

"Many women approached us and said that they cannot afford a stall. We allotted stalls free of charge, and we bore the cost that was quite big, because our objective is to make way for them," said Roubina.

"There is one new phenomenon in this fair. That is men from Pakistan also came with the women to take part, which was very interesting," she said.

"The response is very good. Women entrepreneurs from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Iran and Indonesia are taking part in the fair. In Bangladesh grassroots level businesswomen from Jessore, Bogra, Sylhet, Rajbari and Rajshahi came to take part," said Nasreen Awal Mintoo, president, WEAB.

"It is very important for them because they are having an opportunity to interact with women entrepreneurs of other countries and get new ideas about trade and production," she added.

The objectives of this fair are to develop market strategies suitable for women entrepreneurs and to train and equip them in production techniques, time and finance management, local and export marketing, packaging, pricing and communication skills, said the organisers.

On the sidelines, three seminars titled 'Fair participation and marketing'; 'Finance and managing growth' and 'Promoting regional women entrepreneurship' will be held during the fair.

Over 60 stalls were set up at the fair, and will be open from 11am to 10pm everyday. Entry fee to the fair is Tk 10. Bank Al-Falah is the lead sponsor and JOBS Bangladesh, the supporter. The fair will end on October 6.