Hand Made Paper

The Hand-Made Paper of Bangladesh

In rural Bangladesh, women often have few opportunities to provide for themselves financially. MCC is a Development Organization dedicated to peace and justice that works with women in rural Bangladesh. In the late 1980s there was a high worldwide demand for handmade paper. Using an adapted Japanese/Indian technology, MCC engineers in Bangladesh set up a pilot plant operation for process development of papermaking techniques employing local women from poor villages.

MCC funded a project to produce handmade paper at the Shuktara site in Southeastern Bangladesh. This project used locally available jute and started production with 70 women producers in 1991, producing 50,000 sheets of handmade paper per month and making 50 different paper products from that paper. By 1993, the project employed 170 women, and it continues in operation today. Hand Made Paper

As the demand for handmade paper products increased, a second project named Biborton was established in 1993. This project specialized in making paper from water hyacinth, a common weed that clogs the waterways throughout Bangladesh. By 2001, this project was employing 85 women and had a full- years orders for paper products.

A third papermaking center, Bonoful, was opened in 1996 in northern Bangladesh. Paper at this Bonoful project is made from wheat straw, pineapple leaves, hemp, waste cotton, banana plants and several other indigenous plants.

The paper the women produce is used to make cards, stationary, and photo albums and notebooks. All the dyes used for dying the paper are environmentally friendly. At the present time, these three projects continue to be supported by MCC throughTen Thousand Villages stores and other Fair Trade Outlets. These projects provide a good standard of living for hundreds of poor women in some of the small rural villages of Bangladesh.

My husband and I served as volunteers in these MCC projects from 1996 - 1998. I use this beautiful handmade paper in my artwork. Several of my works are currently on display in the MCC Guest House in Dhaka, Bangladesh.