Pottery village

Suriya took some of us to a pottery village that she helped develop. It started as some potters living in the the Bangladesh section of the divided Indian subcontinent found that the divided Muslim section called Bangladesh did not want to buy clay objects as much as the Hindus who were mainly moving to India. They had a tiny one room house and no money. Suriya took them to Dhaka to live and she gave them designs that would sell abroad. Eventually Ten Thousand Villages and others began buying from them, and they were able to move home to the better environment of the countryside. As time past they used the money they earned for larger, nicer houses (with some of the nicest bathrooms I have seen in Bangladesh) and facilities to make large amounts of potter. A community has developed and the children are healthy and attend school. Suriya's next project is for them to build steps that will lead to the pond for swimming.