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October 26, 2005
Aarong: Shopping for Economic Development
Over the course of the last week, several people including my friend Osama Manzar had suggested I go shopping at a place called Aarong. They'd commented on the high quality of clothing and handicrafts available there, saying that the store even had a fashionable outpost in London.
During the iftar on the last day of the conference, Shahiduddin Akbar suggested we go to Aarong after dinner. He was planning to go with a friend, and wanted to know if I'd like to come along. Word soon spread around the table, and my colleagues Josie and Milton expressed interest in coming along. So the five of us said our goodbyes to everyone at the banquet and jumped in Shahid's pickup truck for the ride to the store, located in Dhaka's Gulshan neighborhood.
Arriving at Aarong, we passed a group of security guards before entering. Inside, literally hundreds of Bangladeshis were shopping at a furious pace. It's tradition to shop at night during Ramadan, purchasing clothes and other items for Eid, the holiday immediately following the month of fasting. The store was a cross between the fair trade handicrafts store Ten Thousand Villages and Filene's Basement in Boston: aisle after aisle of clothes and handmade goods, with shoppers creating heaps of their Eid booty.
We decided to fan out and regroup by the entrance in 30 minutes, then re-evaluate whether we needed more time. I headed straight for the men's clothes department, where I thumbed through several hundred shirts. The t-shirt selection was excellent, while the button-down shirts were the Bangladeshi equivalent of Hawaiian shirts, featuring elaborate, colorful prints. I eventually settled on five shirts averaging around four dollars each before moving on to the handicrafts section, where I purchased a 12-piece set of hand-woven table settings, costing another four dollars. The bargains here seemed bottomless.
As I stood in the checkout line, I noticed various signs referencing BRAC, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. BRAC is an enormous NGO focusing on economic development and women's empowerment at the village level. I asked Shahid if Aarong was affiliated with BRAC; it turns out the store is one of their biggest projects. Rural villagers craft all of the goods available at the store, receiving a fair wage while generating revenue for BRAC's economic development work. I'd been to similar handicraft stores in other parts of the world, but none of them had the crowds and the vibrancy seen here.
The prices at Aarong may be a little higher than your average Bangladeshi shop, but spending the extra takas was well worth it. Nothing like buying souvenirs to help lift people out of poverty. -andy
Posted by acarvin at October 26, 2005 5:09 AM
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