Karim Mia is a bamboo tray and basket producer of Aarong. Due to extreme poverty at home, Karim Mia stopped his schooling when he was in class 3 and began assisting his father in bamboo crafts weaving.  Struck by the untimely death of his father, Karim Mia at the age of 16 had to find an immediate source of income to run his family of five brothers, five sisters and his mother. Initially, Karim Mia commuted from his home district, Tangail (approx. 120 km away from Dhaka city) to sell bamboo products at small crafts shops in Dhaka. At that time, with his meager monthly income of almost $25, he could barely support his family. After struggling for almost three years, Karim Mia came to Aarong in 1988 to show some of his samples. His self-designed samples were immediately chosen and an order was placed for 60 pieces. Since then, Karim Mia has received constant orders from Aarong for its local as well as export market.

As part of its mission to assist producers in product development and technical training, Aarong sponsored Karim Mia to attend a bamboo crafts workshop in New Delhi in 2003. The one-week training has helped him to gain better knowledge about bamboo craft. His workmanship has also shown remarkable improvement in quality. Today, Karim Mia supplies exclusively to Aarong and has a steady monthly income of $100-130. On an average, he has ten workers working under him. During the busy season he employs more than fifty workers.

Karim Mia is now married with two sons and a daughter all of whom attend school. He hopes that his children will be able to complete their education, which he could not because of financial need. About two years ago, Karim Mia bought 20 decimal land in Tangail, where he constructed his tin-shed home. Very recently, he has built an extension room that is being used as working space and storage for the bamboo products.