After Factory Disaster, Bangladesh NGO Offers Support to Improve Work Conditions

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Transcript

GWEN IFILL: Next: an update on moves to improve conditions for workers in Bangladesh, after the tragedy at a clothing factory earlier this year. A development organization dedicated to tackling poverty is offering a hand.

Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro has the story, another in our series “Agents for Change.”

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: This is what’s left of Rana Plaza, the seven-story building that collapsed in April, a memorial, already weathered by heat and monsoons, to the deadliest of Bangladesh’s recent garment factory disasters, the death toll here, 1,127 and counting.

Many victims of the Rana Plaza tragedy may never be accounted for. More than 200 bodies, some decomposed beyond recognition, had to be buried before they could be identified.

BILQUIS, Bangladesh: I’m tired, I have no energy to look for her any more. I don’t know where to go.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: An anguished crowd bearing images of loved ones quickly gathered around us, grandmothers like Bilquis, whose daughter Shahinoor is among those missing. Many here gave DNA samples in hopes a match could be found with someone buried. So far, they said, no word and no compensation.

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Source: PBS NewsHour (link opens in a new window)