Hathay Buano is involved with many projects to alleviate poverty in rural Bangladesh, one of which is monga. Monga means 'near starvation' and refers to a period of 2-4 months between planting and the Aman, the harvest, when there is little or no work and people suffer hunger through the lack of ability to be able to buy food. By training communities in handicrafts people are able to continue to earn throughout the rainy season and thereby are able to buy food.