A project orientation meeting with longla Valley committee leaders held on 10 May 2023 at longla valley office in Bramman Bazar in Kulaura. The key objective of the meeting was to share the project goal, objectives, activities, and expected results among the valley leadership and draw their recommendations for the betterment of the project intervention. Sri Sanju Ghosh, General Secretary of the valley committee presided and moderated over the meeting.

At the starting of the program, the chair and moderator honored the participants, BILS, and OXFAM in Bangladesh. He mentioned his satisfaction  for getting opportunity to enhance the women’s leadership of the tea garden sector. 51 % of women exist among permanent workers and more than 60% women among temporary workers in the tea garden sector. So, it is significantly justified to specific activities for women’s leadership development in the tea garden sector in Bangladesh. He committed to all kinds of support for the better implementation of the project activities in longla valley.

After that, he requested participants and guests to introduce themselves one by one. Then Monirul Kobir from BILS delivered the project purpose and detailed activities in the program and requested participants to their opinion and suggestions for the effective implementations of the project in longla valley.

Manik lal bauri, President of Chanbagh tea garden suggested increasing the quantity of training and participation within the project budget and mentioned many garden-level leaders will manage the venue in the garden without venue rent. Kollyan Bunarji, a prominent panchayat leader of olichura tea garden said, “I think this program will help to enhance the women’s leadership in the tea garden sector”. He requested to expand the locations of the project.

Afterward, Sudip koiri, General Secretary, Udali tea garden mentioned, it will a very significant initiative to capacitate women’s leadership development in the tea garden sector and we will be ready to support BILS and OXFAM in Bangladesh in their interventions.

After long discussions, the chair and moderator of the program delivered his concluding remarks, saying, “I think BILS and OXFAM in Bangladesh will be implementing a good project for the tea garden workers. We are very glad and desire to assist with the implementations in longla as well as in another valley”. He gave thanks to the participants for their participation and BILS for organizing this orientation meeting.