Living at a village of Shaturia upazila in Manikganj, Firoza set up a poultry farm to rebuild her fate but this time she had to lose her house in river erosion.

But her painful days came to an end when Firoza got the job as sales representative of Unilever Bangladesh and started to earn a living by dint of hard labour.

Her little daughter also started to go to school again.

Like Firoza, a total of 5000 women have been provided with job under the collaborative programme of Care Bangladesh, Unilever Bangladesh, Katalyst, Square Group and Bata in 19 districts across the country and changed their fates.

" By the end of 2010 we hope to reach 25,000 women living in extreme poverty-striken areas like chars and haors of north-eastern and north western region of the country," said Deputy Country Director of Care Bangladesh Hasan M Mazumder at a discussion yesterday.

The discussion titled 'Poverty and Business: Bridging the Gap' was held as part of its experience-sharing programme among the partner organisations at the Headquarters of Care Bangladesh.

Representatives of the partner companies explained the strategies to empower the poor women.

They also discussed women's empowerment, gender and business, women enterprise development and violence against women.

The speakers said their overall effort is to focus on the importance of the collaborative partnership between private sector and development organisations to promote women's economic empowerment and fight global poverty.

Care Bangladesh started its Women's Development Programme in 1980s.