Rana Plaza victim Lipi steps towards new life

Manikganj Correspondent :
Rana Plaza Victim Lipi Akter with the help of foreign and local donor agency steps towards a new life.
 After Rana Plaza accident, she was helpless. Now she is carrying a business of her own with the help of different NGO. Lipi feels more confident with her life and is dreaming to expand her business.
Lipi Akhter, daughter of Md. Sayez Uddin and Nasima Begum from Bagutia village under Daulatpur upazilla in Manikganj district is presently living at Mojitpur under Savar Upazila in Dhaka District.
 She has 3 brothers and 3 sisters. She is the eldest among them.
Lipi used to work in Fantom Apparels, with monthly salary Tk. 5000 and she earned an additional Tk. 3000 per month by overtime job. Her garments factory was on fourth floor of Rana Plaza, an eight-storied building at Savar under Dhaka district.
On Wednesday 24 April 2013, entire Rana Plaza building collapsed. Arms Forces along with the Fire Brigade and local Police were assigned to rescue and search for those who were trapped under the rubble. They were able to rescue around 2,515 injured people from the building alive and recovered 1,129 dead bodies. Search and rescue ended on 13 May of that year.
On 24 April morning there was a power failure and diesel generators on the top floor at 8:45 am. The building collapsed at about 08:57am, leaving only the ground floor intact. She was confined under the debris for five hours, confined in between the gap of wall when she was rescued. They took her to the Enam Medical College Hospital at Savar at 12:00 noon. Her family members were crying, not knowing her fate.
Lipi was physically injured, her lower abdomen and kidneys are been affected. She still suffers from the trauma of her experience and miraculous survival and does not want to get back to her old profession in the Garment Industry.
German organization GIZ came forward with the intention of rehabilitating some of the victims of Rana Plaza. Justifying the profile of development organizations in Bangladesh, they selected Christan Commission For Development In Bangladesh-CCDB to engage with training, counseling, monitoring and facilitating small enterprises according to their interest and capacity. Initially CCDB selected 20 victims.