My Experience Volunteering with DCI by MAHAM
I have been working with a great nonprofit organization, DCI (Distressed Children & Infants International) for the past several years. It is a cause I deeply care about and that I want you to learn about. This wonderful organization protects the children’s rights, works for ending child labor and poverty, and provides basic needs to underprivileged children in Bangladesh and around the world and gives them educational opportunities and future economic possibilities.
Specifically, DCI actively fights childhood poverty, hunger, and blindness. In addition, it helps student volunteers like us gain positive life and leadership skills. I love this organization, and I love helping to give these unfortunate children the opportunity to thrive and to be successful in their lives. Passion for improving the lives of those who have been deprived of their basic rights is what motivates me on a daily basis. Volunteering with DCI has deeply inspired me, as it makes me imagine a sea of smiles and happy little hearts. Volunteering with DCI, teaches me how fortunate I am, how privileged I am. I have food, I have school, I have a wonderful family. I have everything I need in this world. In fact, after getting involved with DCI, I started to think about my own life and the lives of unfortunate children who have nothing. I am also very happy to sponsor a girl at the SunChild Home Orphanage.
I am very proud to be involved with DCI, and I want to introduce DCI to all my friends and family members. We need all of your support, active involvement, and leadership to make this mission a success. With the COVID-19 economic disruption that exists today, we need your help more than ever. Thank you all in advance for getting involved with my mission for helping children in need. I look forward to working together for this very important cause for children.
With thanks,
Maham Sanjida Rahman 
I had the pleasure of volunteering at RSC/DCI at the girls’ orphanage in Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. I taught English by combining it with Bangla. Through visual learning, the girls were able to accomplish good pronunciation and recognition of the English alphabet and numbers. Over a stretch of three days (June 5th, 7th, and 14th, 2012), I spent a combined time of 3.5 hours teaching at the orphanage.
I would like to thank Dr. Ehsan Hoque, Mr. Hai Zaidul, Ms. Salma Qadir, and all the others who made this wonderful experience possible. I would also like to thank the cordial girls at the orphanage, whose cooperation was necessary for this occasion to occur. This volunteering opportunity changed my view of the world and made me very fortunate for basic necessities that I previously took for granted.
However, I feel a need to raise a substantial issue regarding the importance of family, based on my personal experience volunteering at Boy’s Haven for America Inc., a temporary foster program serving kids all over the U.S. The first student I tutored came to Boy’s Haven because of behavior problems. His parents frequently visited him and he was able to see them in their house. During his time there, his personality greatly improved and after some time, he was able to move back with his family. I feel that DCI’s orphanage should strive to have the same mission: after a girl starts to live at the DCI orphanage, she should be allowed to visit family members at their houses or be visited by them at the orphanage. Once family members are cleared to be able to take care of girl, the girl should move back with them. If not, the girls might grow up thinking that their family never got a second chance to raise them, and that their family does not care about them anymore.
DCI has changed the lives of many underprivileged children through their wonderful programs and I am sure that they will continue to do so in the future. Once again, I thank everyone for their cooperation and supervision of my volunteering experience in Bangladesh.
Ridwan Ahmed,
West Brook High School (9th Grade)
Beaumont, TX 
This summer I was in Bangladesh, working at a clinic for underprivileged people, visiting slums to check health conditions of children and pregnant women, and working at an orphanage, which overall has been an eye-opening experience for me. The DCI volunteer program has given me the opportunity to learn about the healthcare system of a third world country like Bangladesh, and have a life changing experience there.
I would wake up at 7:00am and get ready to go to the clinic. Although the clinic is half an hour away from my house, it usually took me an hour or more to get there because of traffic. When I finally get to work, patients start coming to see the doctor. When the doctor asks the patient a question, I asked some follow up questions to get more information about the patient. I helped with taking history of the patients including checking their blood sugar level, blood pressure, and recording weight of children and pregnant mothers. Since all the patients are from slums near the clinic, they are usually uneducated and quite ignorant about their health. We had to talk to them in simple words so that they would understand what we were trying to explain. Because of their lack of knowledge, they seemed very helpless, and expressed their gratitude when they got better. I gained a sense of fulfillment after helping them.
It was very interesting to work at the clinic as I observed a pattern in the type of health issues people suffered from in Bangladesh. The majority of the young patients were malnourished, suffered from flus, various infections, diarrhea, and skin diseases since they live in an unhygienic environment, and do not get enough nutritious food. A lot of older patients were suffering from body aches, arthritis, vitamin deficiencies and problems related to lungs due to doing physical labor and inhaling dust at work and the slums they live in. I have also observed that a lot more female patients were suffering from malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies than males. Working with different doctors and seeing patients has helped me learn about different treatments and diagnosis, and also understand the life styles of extremely poor people in a third world country.
After watching all the patients, we would visit the slum to see if there were any children or pregnant woman in the houses. We examined the health condition of the children and pregnant women in each house, and talked to them to increase health awareness in the area. As they realized that we were trying to help them, they were very generous and friendly with us. Even though they are very poor and do not have enough food for themselves, they still invited us to their small one-room houses and offered food. However, we always avoided eating their food for safety. Still, it’s very nice to see how welcoming they were. Since people at the slum are not used to seeing people in western clothes, I wore very simple and traditional Bengali clothes called “saloar kamiz” at work in order for me to feel comfortable as well as make them feel comfortable to talk to me about their problems. I even tried to talk in their slang while talking to them about health awareness issues.
Last but not least, I have also worked at an orphanage run by DCI. When I met with the kids during my first orientation, I wanted to know about their lives, and also wanted to help them. I went to the orphanage twice a week to spend time with them. I taught them English, helped them with their homework, and then played different games with them just for them to have some fun. I was amazed to see how curious they were to learn new things and meet new people. The supervisor of the orphanage told me how they lost their parents and homes, and how some of them were physically abused by their relatives. Despite experiencing such tragedy at their young age, they have learned to stay strong and smile again. Their lives have made me realize how fortunate I am to have a family and my various opportunities in life.
I had so many different experiences during this summer through the DCI volunteer program. While I have enjoyed working and living in Bangladesh, I have also gained a lot of valuable experiences which will help me in the future. That’s why once again I would like to thank Distressed Children and Infants International for my unforgettable summer experience in Bangladesh.
Samia Alam
Washington and Lee University, Lexington VA 
Last winter I went to Bangladesh to see my mom and to visit my sponsored child, Laboni Akter Tanjila. I have been sponsoring Laboni for the last couple of years and until now I knew her only from pictures. I was very excited to finally to be able to meet my sponsored child. My brother and I went to her village in Barisal on a big three-story passenger ship. We started from Dhaka around 9 pm and reached our destination the next day at around 11 am. DCI field officers were at the terminal to receive us. Immediately, I went to my sponsored child’s school and met with her classmates. Then I met her parents, who were very excited to see us. The father of my sponsored child climbed a coconut tree and served green coconut water to all of us.
Laboni’s father, Monir Hossain is a fisherman and her mom (Farida Begum) stays home with Laboni’s younger brother. Her father’s job as a fisherman is dependent on luck, so life is not easy. After being brought into the sponsorship program DCI is now trying to help Laboni’s mother, so she can earn some money and help the family. I saw with my own eyes how the small amount I am giving is changing lives — it is truly a life-changing experience. I urge you to visit DCI’s projects to see the situation and get involved in any way you can. Thank you.
-Anis U. Zaman 
