Messages

Prof. M R Khan

Prof. M R Khan

image0015We are working mainly in the field of child care, preventive & curative. We have lot of achievements in this area. But working for distressed children within the community is a newer concept & appears to be working in a very positive way. We highly appreciate that DCI came forward in assisting us in our journey to reach a predictive goal. I wish your Conference success and hope it leads to positive outcomes for the distressed children of the globe. –Prof. M R Khan National Professor of Bangladesh Director, Institute of Child Health and Shishu Sasthya Foundation Hospital, Bangladesh

Muhammad Abdul Mazid

Muhammad Abdul Mazid

Md-Abdul-MazidI am confident that the Conference will be able to create an awareness, increase consensus and foster mutual understanding among stakeholders at large on children’s rights in local, national, and international communities, on issues of poverty in the 21st century, and on providing a forum for discussing creative, community-driven methods for alleviating child labor, hunger, and poverty around the world. I am personally happy to publicly announce that Distressed Children and Infants (DCI) International is taking part in excellent endeavors for the development of distressed children and has undertaken some commendable projects in Bangladesh, specifically. I have had the opportunity of visiting some of the projects, and I was highly impressed by the thoughtfulness, caring and creativity of those programs implemented for the distressed section of our future generation. I wish DCI a great success. –Muhammad Abdul Mazid Former Chairman, National Board of Revenue (NBR) Ministry of Finance, Government of Bangladesh Advisor, DCI Bangladesh

Masud Chowdhury

Masud Chowdhury

masud-chowdhuryI extend my warm greetings and felicitations to the organizers and participants of this year’s Conference on Child Rights & Sight at Yale University. It is critical to promote children’s education and safeguard child rights through more and more awareness. Focus, hard work, and a strong team are required to lower the dropout rate and impact underprivileged children with meaningful education. I am confident that the deliberation of this conference will accelerate the pace of activities in this field. I wish the conference all the success. —Masud Chowdhury Advisor, Distressed Children & Infants Intl. Chairman/President Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce –USA

Sharmeen Parvez

Sharmeen Parvez

Sun Child Sponsorship program is a great program. I am supporting this program from my heart and I appreciate the work that DCI is doing for these poor underprivileged children. –Sharmeen Parvez, Prosper, TX

Anusur Rahman Nanto

Anusur Rahman Nanto

Anisur-RahmanI really appreciate this endeavor. It is a very constructive effort to involve our kids with their roots. I am requesting all of our friends to involve their kids for such support to the distressed children of Bangladesh. Anusur Rahman Nanto Australia

Ridwan Ahmed Volunteers at DCI’s Sun Child Home

Ridwan Ahmed Volunteers at DCI’s Sun Child Home

ridwanI 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

My Experience Volunteering with DCI in Bangladesh by Samia Alam

My Experience Volunteering with DCI in Bangladesh by Samia Alam

Samia-Alam-300x216This 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