Zonta Club of Dhaka III empowers communities through climate innovation

District 25 Service Committee Chair Seleena Mustafa has centered her service on empowering underprivileged women and girls through education. As a teacher, she became deeply involved with the educational project Shishu Bikash Kendra, helping women gain opportunities to advance in life. Her dedication was reignited when she read about a distressed woman from a remote village, sparking another chapter in her work to help women sustain themselves and uplift their families.

The Zonta Club of Dhaka III, Bangladesh, also champions innovative solutions that tie women’s empowerment to climate resilience. In 2016, when her husband’s injury left the family struggling, Naseema Akhter began handcrafting biodegradable paper pens to keep her children in school. What started as a mother’s resourceful act of survival has since grown into Shuvo Poribeshbandhob Kolom, a thriving social enterprise. Today, Naseema supplies prestige clients such as the American Embassy and the American International School, while producing seed-embedded pens that transform consumption into regeneration.

With support from Zonta Club of Dhaka III, including investments in equipment and workspace improvements, production has more than doubled from 8,000 pens per month to over 15,000. Beyond business growth, the initiative reflects progress on multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including gender equality, decent work, responsible consumption, and climate action. Naseema’s daughter, once the inspiration for the first handmade pen, has since earned her Master’s degree and joined the business. Each pen now carries Zonta’s emblem, symbolizing a quiet revolution—planted one seed at a time.