A ray of hope

Geeti Billah, owner of Geeti's beauty parlour, has been working effortlessly throughout the years to bring change into society. She has trained and worked with mute women and physically abused girls and helped them lead a better and healthier life. The most recent initiative she had taken is training members of the transgendered population and helping them find employment.

 “These transgender people used to come knocking on our door every now and then to ask for money,” she says, “I spoke to them one day and told them how I could help them lead a better life. Since most of them come from separate communities, the head's of their communities didn't let me help them.” After her offer to help was turned down, Geeti came across Bondhu Organisation, which works for the welfare of transgender people. She asked them if they would send a group of transgendered people for a free training programme of ten days and they agreed to send ten of them from different districts. While Bondhu Organisation paid for their living expenses by giving them a certain amount of money per day, Geeti worked tirelessly to train them sufficiently for them to find work. After the training session, there was an award ceremony where they received certificates. “This was done mainly to keep them motivated and so that more of them would be inspired to take a step forward and become a part of our society,” says Geeti. Two of these trainees now work at Geeti's parlour. Some found jobs as make-up artists, some opened their own beauty parlours and some work as personal therapists. Bondhu Organisation, pleased with the results of the training, has offered Geeti to take in 10 more trainees. This second training session took place during last year's Ramadan, after which Geeti began to work with acid victims while offering community service to the country, one big step at a time.