Mini Akter has no memory of her parents. She addressed her maternal grandmother as ‘Ma’ (mother).
The orphan lived with her grandmother, Hasina Begum, in Nilpahamari where the destitute woman has to beg for a meal a day.
As the aged woman was finding it hard to make both ends meet, she was frantically searching for a shelter for her granddaughter.
In the meantime, she heard the name of Sun Child Home, an orphanage, from one of her neighbour and she finally sent Mini there in 2010.
Ever since, Mini is a permanent resident of the 48-member orphanage in Mohammadpur of the capital.
Mini has none in this world to inquire after her health and welfare, but the orphanage motivated her to dream of becoming a doctor in the future.
Like Mini, every ill-fated orphan has the same heart-wrenching stories in their lives.
Asma, along with her sister Sumaiya, took refuge in the orphanage in the wake of the death of her father.
The death of their father inflicted severe financial hardship and immense sufferings on their lives. They had to live at a slum in Mohammadpur of the capital.
Leaving them at the slum alone, their impoverished mother, Joynab Bibi, a domestic help, went to work and the girls collected papers and rags and went without food almost the entire day.
As a blessing from the skies, the distressing mother once heard the name of Sun Child Home from one of her acquaintances and she, too, sent the girls there.
Asma is now a fifth grader and dreams of becoming a police officer.
Not only Mini, Asma and Sumaiya; there are so many orphans at the home to share the same tear-jerking stories. Now they dream of a becoming doctor, banker, teacher or advocate. Becoming self-reliant, these disadvantaged orphans would like to contribute to the advancement of the country by standing up for the poverty-stricken people.
Dr Ehsan Hoque, the founder of the US-based charity Distressed Children & Infants International (DCI), established the orphanage in Mohammadpur under the auspices of Rights and Sight for Children (RSC), a sister volunteer organisation of the DCI, in 2010.
Talking to daily sun, Ehsan said Sun Child Home has been providing the orphans with safe and secured home, quality education, nutritious foods, and health care.
He went on saying that the orphanage has also been teaching the children co-curriculum activities like dance, song, and drawing.
“Besides receiving training in computer, they are reading in different classes in Mohammadpur Kisholoy Girls School & College,” he added. He called upon the rich and well-off families to extend their helping hands to make the dream of the orphans come true.
Article written by Md. Enamul Hassan on July 13, 2017 from Daily Sun www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/237731/Driven-by-love-for-orphans
