I am into my final days of my visit here in Dhaka, and it is with a heavy heart that I have some devastating news to pass on to you guys. In my first blog, I wrote about a young boy that I met, Rabbi. In the last few days I have been unable to relocate him, his peers have claimed that an elder lady who was claiming to be his grandma (dhadi) has taken him away from the station. Rabbi, was extremely upset and his peers told me that he was kicking and screaming as she took him away. I asked them if they thought that she was actually his grandma, to which they all replied that this type of thing happens regularly and that the lady was simply claiming to be his grandma. I asked the station police if they knew of his whereabouts but I was waved off very rudely.
As devastating as this news is, the kids of the station seem to be completely desensitised to this type of occurrence, for them this is daily life. A few days back, we held some intensive interviews with some of the kids that we have selected to take on in our centre. Our selection process is varied, in that there are many issues that the youngsters face in the station. Boys seem to respond readily to classes whereby they can actively participate and practice writing etc. The girls seem very disinterested in the class setup yet are very responsive to roleplays etc. It is fair to say that there are no two children in the station who face exactly the same problems and issues.
All the interviews have been filmed and I will hopefully get the film edited in time for you all to see at our May 2nd event. I wanted to give you a little detail about one particular girl, her name is Brishti Shonali (Golden Rainfall). She is no older than 7 and extremely restless; she has a short attention span and on the surface is just like any normal 7 year old. Just like our little brothers or sisters, nieces or nephews, she always wants to sing and dance, fool around and is extremely easily influenced. This little girl was abandoned in the station by her step mother who used to beat her because she was hyperactive. She has been left in the station to fend for herself for the past two years. Any opportunity she gets, she tries to beg for small change. She has even tried to beg off me many times. In return, I replicated her actions, which she found hilarious and immediately, jumped on me to give me a massive hug.
In the interview, we discovered that she has self harmed using blades on her forearm. She did this as she saw older girls in the station doing the same thing. They all sit in the evening together and drink Dandy (an alcopop), and as they talk about their plights, they take blades to their forearms and repeatedly cut themselves. I asked Dr Zaki about this, as he has done an intense research study on this area, and claims that this type of behaviour was first introduced by local mastans who would cut a working girls forearm as part of some sort of sadomasochistic (S&M) ritual. As these working girls were staying in the station , the slightly younger girls would see these cuts and replicate. It has now become so common that even this tiny innocent 7 year old has self harmed. She has also taken drugs in tablet form and also addicted to glue sniffing. To wean these children off drugs such as these and to remove the afflictions they have faced at such a young age will no doubt be hard work, and God willing and with your help we will get there. To even be able to rehabilitate one person, I believe, is enough for us to die happy.
From Rabbi’s experiences, I have also been asking our kids about the activities of the roof of Kamlapur Station. All the kids have infomed me that there is a dangerous guy who lives up there by the name of Shad Bai Chompka. According to them he is the major ring leader of all the activities in the station, from drugs distribution to molestation and prostitution. The station police are well informed of his activities, but they too are paid by him to keep quiet and allow the smooth flow of his operations. There is not a single MP in Bangladesh or Upazilla Chairman (local councillor) who has lobbied for the safe protection of the children of Kamplapur Station against all these disgusting and horrendous activities that the children are exposed to. The children are prone to all kinds of diseases, infections, abuse and misuse, yet the people who run this country, or who are influential in this country, do not bat an eyelid. In fact, from my own relatives, to locals of the station and our centre, right the way even to NGO bureau director (yes the director), have discouraged me from our planned actions. They have repeatedly told me that programmes such as ours fail, that programmes such as our do not work, that it is an impossible task to rehabilitate these children, that we wont be able to succeed in our intentions. I believe, as I know that you do too, that with enough support and with enough passion, with the right blend of enthusiasm and energy, the right blend of experience and knowledge, while one person alone may not be able to instill change, collectively, we can, we will and we shall.
I am committed with every ounce of energy, every bead of sweat and everything that I have to make change happen. Who is with us? Show your support, make some sound and lets voice the voiceless. Our ambitions, yes, are big, our belief is bigger but more than ever before, We Need YOU!!!