Sayem Hoque Bhuiyan
Sun rises and sets; days come and pass by, but, for some people lives do not change. They are of course the poor, unfortunate people of our beloved country: Bangladesh. Their fragile, disastrous conditions clearly portrait our inhumane indecency towards them the indecency of not caring for those truly unfortunates.
This is why YOUTHWAVE STUDENT SOCIETY took a responsible initiative to visit slums and find out and solve the tough problems of the poor people living there. This great campaign is termed as “Bosti Visiting”. It was in a fine, sunny morning of 13th November, 2009 Friday. I along with Manzur bhai, Rezwan, Naseef, Nabil, Ashraf, Hamim and Rahat set off for “Karail Basti” in Banani. But, before we could set off, YWSS president Mashud bhai briefed us by saying the following- “The initiative that we are taking is morally great but physically tough. Slums are usually over-crowed and you have to be there and work under scorching heat of the sun. The smell would not be friendly as well. But, we have an unavoidable responsibility- being a way more fortunate than them to take some care of them. So, I wish overcoming all the difficult obstacles you will make this campaign a success”.
His words encouraged us, especially me.
At sharp 12.00, we reached “Karail Bosti” which is just at the bank of Banani Lake. As soon as I put my first step into the slum, a terrible smell hit me. But my firm determination to help the poor helped me to patiently bear that. For first several minutes we did absolutely nothing except just roaming around. Manzur bhai took several photos of surroundings. In the meantime, we bought a large number of Candies for the poor children.
Not too long after that, Nabil was reunited with his former maid. She welcomed us and took her to her house. She kindly informed us that this slum had one day been burned by a huge monstrous fire. Many of those affected by the fire was never helped by the government, so they could never get back to their previous conditions which were better than their present ones.
Her house really bears proof that it had one day been destroyed by a giant fire. Her house as like most of the house make us realize her condition during rainy seasons. She mercifully provides us a helpful guide named Imon, so that we can have a good look at the slum. He was only about 12 in age but nevertheless, was really helpful. He studies in class-4 in “Intervida” school.
As he took us through the slum we experienced a lot of thing for the first time. Your legs will severely ache if you go through the entire slum. This slum had everything. Starting from the mosques and schools to clinic and shops, it had everything. We even saw mini-clinics and shops, it had everything. We even saw mini-clinics such as “Karail Bosti Mini-clinic”. Big mosques such as “ Al-Madina Jame Masjid” was also there. There were two interestingly named Bazars as well: “Bau Bazar” and “Jamai Bazar”.
We are astonished to know that this slum has at least 3 schools of its known. They are Intervida Pathshala, Rik and Banani Pre-primary School. There are three fields, more surprisingly this slum has a graveyard of its own “ Karail kabarastha”.
Imon led us through Taltola road, Bau bazaar, Jamai bazaar and finally to Jamai bazaar field. On the way we saw a numerous number of shops. These shops were different kind and varieties. Almost all types of shops were there such as: Salon, Shop for Chips and Chocolates, Tailors, Pharmacies etc. some shop also poses computers with L.C.D monitors and T.V as well. Almost all houses contain a TV. Interestingly, we also found some social groups like: Bangladesh Muktizodha Shamiti, Allahor Dan bohu-mukhi Samabay Shamiti. There were also offices of political parties like, BNP, AL, JP etc.
After we reached the Jamai bazaar, we called up some boys and girls together. We distributed candies among them and had a friendly chat with them about their lives. We took photos of them with an YWSS banner in front and those boys and girls were really over the moon. They told us their problems and we wrote them down along with their names and identities. We promised them from the core of our hearts that we shall come back and help as per our abilities to solve their problems.
Their problems are:
• Not enough money to buy all the stationeries needed for education
• Quality of education is not good
• Their surroundings are extremely congested and truly overcrowded
• Stench of garbage is almost everywhere
• Both air and water pollution are affecting their health
• Lack of proper medical treatment and hygienic food.
We talked with more than 40 slum child, some of them were – Rubel, Rofiqul, Nazmul, Miraz, Sayed, Rasel, Tania, Sumi and so on. After all we prepared to leave the slum. Imon showed us the way to out.
What we did and will do may not change things a great deal but if we all fortunate people come and work together, we can change the lives of those poor people to a great extent. So, YWSS has started the work and you all can come and join us to help the poor, the needy and make our Bangladesh a better place to live in.
Writer
Student, O level, Manarat Dhaka Int’l College