Celebration of successful handicrafts

All of Prokritee's enterprises have an annual meeting in which the extra money from sales is announced. The producers are paid a daily or per piece base wage, but at the end of each year the profits are divided and given to each enterprises' staff. In Agailjhara there are four Prokritee enterprises and so all four meetings are held within two days, so that the visitors from the Prokritee office in Dhaka only make the trip once. The staff from the enterprises also attended the other enterprises' meetings. We had the same type of meeting four times in a row with a lunch, dinner, breakfast, and lunch. A van load of people came from Dhaka, and you couldn't believe how honored these people were. I was also highly respected simply because I am a foreigner. Each meeting included being greeted with a garland of flowers, speaches by producer leader, songs by the producers, dances by children, skits performed by the producers, speeches by every honored guest, reading of how much profit would be received, giving gifts to the producers, receiving gifts from the producers, eating mishti, and having large amounts of food placed on your plate. The meetings were both hot and fun.