Fr. Gian Paolo Gualzetti poses for a photo in front of a Mother Teresa mural in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

By Anna Pozzi

In the industrial area on the outskirts of Dhaka, Fr. Gian Paolo Gualzetti carries out a very special apostolate: support for young workers who are often forced to work jobs that are exhausting, unsafe, and poorly paid.

“In Bangladesh, women have led the industrial revolution”. Fr. Gian Paolo Gualzetti states not only with his usual calmness, but also with the clear awareness of those who live in it. Each day coming face-to-face with the human, social and cultural cost of what they call “development” in one of the poorest countries in the world. He is 59 years old, originally from Lecco, Italy and a PIME Missionary since 1986, Father dreamed of an apostolate in the villages. Instead, he found himself in one of Asia’s largest and most chaotic cities: Dhaka, Bangladesh. With over 16 million inhabitants, there is an impressive human concentration filled with noises, colors, smells, and lots, and lots of people. More people keep pouring into this sprawling megalopolis in the frantic search for a job and a better life, which, more often than not, they do not find.

It is precisely on this front that the mission of Fr. Gian Paolo is; not in any of the villages, in fact, or tribal ethnicities where the PIME Missionaries here traditionally work; not the “church-school-hostel-dispensary” pattern that continues to represent the classical model of presence in Bangladesh. In a nation where almost 90% of the population is Muslim, while Christians (only half of them Catholics) represent only 0.3%, his is the world of labor. His mission lies in an industrial suburb where textile factories are concentrated, producing garments for the whole world. They work in conditions that border on slavery, serious exploitation, and sometimes, even beyond. A reminder of the tragedy of the Rana Plaza on April 24th of 2013, when a huge nine-storied commercial building (built on foundations made for a five-story one) collapsed, killing more than a thousand people, many of them young workers. “There were some of our girls, too, among the victims” Fr. Gian Paolo recalls sadly, “they were victims of a tragedy that could have been avoided. Now the controls are more capillary and strict both on working conditions and on safety.”

The result? Many orders of international brands have ended up in countries like Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam or Laos; where the cost of labor is even lower than that of Bangladesh and where controls and guarantees are weaker. It is a sick global model of economics and development that has simply swallowed up the young lives of the Rana Plaza workers, one which heavily affects the lives of millions of people forced to work with few rights and for very little money.

Since the end of 2012, after five years spent in Milan as Director of the PIME Mission Center there, he moved to Zirani, near the two Export Processing Zones (EPZ), in the vast industrial area on the north-western outskirts of Dhaka, where export productions concentrate: textiles of course, but also, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, ceramics and much more. “Already in 2005, my confreres had the intuition of creating a presence of the Institute at the service of workers. But it took us several years to realize it because obstacles and difficulties were not few.” he recalled.

Fr. Sandro Giacomelli had been a precursor to him: after spending long years in the area of Dinajpur, north of the city, he had descended to Dhaka. It was here that he had found many of his boys, lost in the maze of the big city, exhausted by endless work, living in very poor conditions, and without spiritual assistance. Fr. Sandro died in a car accident in 2007, but his care for these people has been picked up and carried out by many of his confreres. “Even today, many of the young people we meet in Zirani come from the north of the country where our missions are present and belong to the minorities with which missionaries traditionally work,” Fr. Gian Paolo reflects. “In Dhaka they find themselves alone, far from families and forced to work exhausting hours.”

Many people descend from the villages north of Dhaka into the big city, in search of a better life. Instead, they find endless work and more difficulties.

Fr. Gualzetti’s way of approaching them begins from afar: “When I was still in the parish of Mirpur, just outside of Dhaka, I would occasionally go with the young people and with the Luigine Sisters to one of the EPZ areas. We went to a housing settlement that was sprawling, at first, haphazardly, like a slum. Then, a little at a time, many buildings sprung up, and later also schools and hospitals, but many areas continue to be like this, without services and infrastructures. At that time, I celebrated Mass in tiny private homes or in rented rooms. I visited families, I arranged meetings and then, late at night, we would go back to the parish in Mirpur 25 miles away.”

It took more than two years to find some land, amid many difficulties. There was some mistrust in the face of the project, a Christian presence in an almost exclusively Muslim world. There had not yet been the serious attacks of recent years or the massacre of Dhaka on July 1st of 2016, where 20 lost their lives. Even then, and maybe even more so today, the Christian presence requires certain precautions that do not manage to keep us from the possibility of dialogue and the casual encounters of daily life.

“We wanted to stay inside the EPZ area,” Fr. Gian Paolo recalls. “But nobody wanted to give us the land. In the end, we found real estate, three miles away from the identified area. Later it turned out to be a providential choice, because the industrial area developed precisely in that direction.”

Today the “Jesus the Worker Center” is right in the productive heart of Bangladesh, it houses two hostels for 24 boys and 19 girls respectively. Job seekers can stay from two weeks to a month; workers from six months to a year; and girls are allowed to stay three to four years. This is because, if they are not married, as in the vast majority of cases, girls often encounter great difficulties in finding accommodations. In addition to the girls’ hostel a kindergarten, with 20 children who sometimes stay from 7 am to 10 pm, was also entrusted to the three Sisters of the Immaculate who live at the Center.

That should give you the idea of the unreasonable working hours of their parents. There is also a church, where Mass is celebrated every day for a small group of Christians and where Fridays, holidays in Bangladesh. Here, a varied community of Santals and Oraos from the Northwest (hailing from the areas of Dinajpur and Rajshahi), as well as Mandis and Garos from the Northeast (from the district of Mymensingh) festively celebrate the Eucharist. “These are the occasions when we are able to approach them, in addition to the specific meetings to prepare young people for marriage and the baptism of their children. But most of the relationships are actually woven in the evening when I go out to meet the workers in their homes after work,” Fr. Gian Paolo reveals.

The window for social life and faith is truly a narrow one. Six days of work per week, long hours, sometimes especially exhausting shifts when there are urgent deliveries. All this to get a salary that can go range from only 65 to 110 US dollars per month, this is of course including overtime.

“And before the Muslim festivals of Eid, in which Isaac’s sacrifice is remembered, workers usually work also on Fridays in order to have a few days off and return to their families, as well as to obtain the ‘Premium’ that otherwise they would not get if they had missed even a single workday at the factory,” he concludes. “And so, life drags on between work, meals and night rest. For social interaction, sometimes there is only the cell phone.”

“In Bangladesh, women have led the industrial revolution”. Fr. Gian Paolo Gualzetti states not only with his usual calmness, but also with the clear awareness of those who live in it. Each day coming face-to-face with the human, social and cultural cost of what they call “development” in one of the poorest countries in the world. He is 59 years old, originally from Lecco, Italy and a PIME Missionary since 1986, Father dreamed of an apostolate in the villages. Instead, he found himself in one of Asia’s largest and most chaotic cities: Dhaka, Bangladesh. With over 16 million inhabitants, there is an impressive human concentration filled with noises, colors, smells, and lots, and lots of people. More people keep pouring into this sprawling megalopolis in the frantic search for a job and a better life, which, more often than not, they do not find.

It is precisely on this front that the mission of Fr. Gian Paolo is; not in any of the villages, in fact, or tribal ethnicities where the PIME Missionaries here traditionally work; not the “church-school-hostel-dispensary” pattern that continues to represent the classical model of presence in Bangladesh. In a nation where almost 90% of the population is Muslim, while Christians (only half of them Catholics) represent only 0.3%, his is the world of labor. His mission lies in an industrial suburb where textile factories are concentrated, producing garments for the whole world. They work in conditions that border on slavery, serious exploitation, and sometimes, even beyond. A reminder of the tragedy of the Rana Plaza on April 24th of 2013, when a huge nine-storied commercial building (built on foundations made for a five-story one) collapsed, killing more than a thousand people, many of them young workers. “There were some of our girls, too, among the victims” Fr. Gian Paolo recalls sadly, “they were victims of a tragedy that could have been avoided. Now the controls are more capillary and strict both on working conditions and on safety.”

The result? Many orders of international brands have ended up in countries like Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam or Laos; where the cost of labor is even lower than that of Bangladesh and where controls and guarantees are weaker. It is a sick global model of economics and development that has simply swallowed up the young lives of the Rana Plaza workers, one which heavily affects the lives of millions of people forced to work with few rights and for very little money.

Since the end of 2012, after five years spent in Milan as Director of the PIME Mission Center there, he moved to Zirani, near the two Export Processing Zones (EPZ), in the vast industrial area on the north-western outskirts of Dhaka, where export productions concentrate: textiles of course, but also, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, ceramics and much more. “Already in 2005, my confreres had the intuition of creating a presence of the Institute at the service of workers. But it took us several years to realize it because obstacles and difficulties were not few.” he recalled.

Whether in the isolated north, or the cramped slums of Dhaka, PIME Missionaries like Fr. Gian Paolo seek to be witnesses where the people live, rather than live in comfort.

Fr. Sandro Giacomelli had been a precursor to him: after spending long years in the area of Dinajpur, north of the city, he had descended to Dhaka. It was here that he had found many of his boys, lost in the maze of the big city, exhausted by endless work, living in very poor conditions, and without spiritual assistance. Fr. Sandro died in a car accident in 2007, but his care for these people has been picked up and carried out by many of his confreres. “Even today, many of the young people we meet in Zirani come from the north of the country where our missions are present and belong to the minorities with which missionaries traditionally work,” Fr. Gian Paolo reflects. “In Dhaka they find themselves alone, far from families and forced to work exhausting hours.”

Fr. Gualzetti’s way of approaching them begins from afar: “When I was still in the parish of Mirpur, just outside of Dhaka, I would occasionally go with the young people and with the Luigine Sisters to one of the EPZ areas. We went to a housing settlement that was sprawling, at first, haphazardly, like a slum. Then, a little at a time, many buildings sprung up, and later also schools and hospitals, but many areas continue to be like this, without services and infrastructures. At that time, I celebrated Mass in tiny private homes or in rented rooms. I visited families, I arranged meetings and then, late at night, we would go back to the parish in Mirpur 25 miles away.”

It took more than two years to find some land, amid many difficulties. There was some mistrust in the face of the project, a Christian presence in an almost exclusively Muslim world. There had not yet been the serious attacks of recent years or the massacre of Dhaka on July 1st of 2016, where 20 lost their lives. Even then, and maybe even more so today, the Christian presence requires certain precautions that do not manage to keep us from the possibility of dialogue and the casual encounters of daily life.

“We wanted to stay inside the EPZ area,” Fr. Gian Paolo recalls. “But nobody wanted to give us the land. In the end, we found real estate, three miles away from the identified area. Later it turned out to be a providential choice, because the industrial area developed precisely in that direction.”

Today the “Jesus the Worker Center” is right in the productive heart of Bangladesh, it houses two hostels for 24 boys and 19 girls respectively. Job seekers can stay from two weeks to a month; workers from six months to a year; and girls are allowed to stay three to four years. This is because, if they are not married, as in the vast majority of cases, girls often encounter great difficulties in finding accommodations. In addition to the girls’ hostel a kindergarten, with 20 children who sometimes stay from 7 am to 10 pm, was also entrusted to the three Sisters of the Immaculate who live at the Center. That should give you the idea of the unreasonable working hours of their parents. There is also a church, where Mass is celebrated every day for a small group of Christians and where Fridays, holidays in Bangladesh. Here, a varied community of Santals and Oraos from the Northwest (hailing from the areas of Dinajpur and Rajshahi), as well as Mandis and Garos from the Northeast (from the district of Mymensingh) festively celebrate the Eucharist. “These are the occasions when we are able to approach them, in addition to the specific meetings to prepare young people for marriage and the baptism of their children. But most of the relationships are actually woven in the evening when I go out to meet the workers in their homes after work,” Fr. Gian Paolo reveals.

The window for social life and faith is truly a narrow one. Six days of work per week, long hours, sometimes especially exhausting shifts when there are urgent deliveries. All this to get a salary that can go range from only 65 to 110 US dollars per month, this is of course including overtime.

“And before the Muslim festivals of Eid, in which Isaac’s sacrifice is remembered, workers usually work also on Fridays in order to have a few days off and return to their families, as well as to obtain the ‘Premium’ that otherwise they would not get if they had missed even a single workday at the factory,” he concludes. “And so, life drags on between work, meals and night rest. For social interaction, sometimes there is only the cell phone.”