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THE STRENGTH WITHIN

World on tip of fingers

Ashfaq Wares Khan
Harbilash doesn't think about it, he doesn't want others to think about it His world is just as fruitful as a craftsman at his local markets, with or without what others call his'disability'.
For Harbilash, the world is on the tip of his fingers, both literally, and figuratively. The fingers, as he says, are the most important things in his life because they help him attach to the world, earn a living, and in effect, reinforce his belief that he can make it on his own as a craftsman despite what others call his disability - his blindness.
■framing other craftsmen and women these days and a businessman of handicrafts in his own right, Harbilash, a man in his late 20s living in Agailjhara union in Bansal, was afflicted with the curse of blindness at age two because of small pox.
From that point on, Harbilash felt his way the objects around him and started to depend more and more on his limbs, especially onhishands, to feel theworld.
The youngest in a family of nine, Harbil ash's attempts to even help around the house were always resisted by his plder siblings because they felt he was incapable of doing anything effective and it would be a waste of everyone's time.
"They all wanted me to act like beggars, and it didn't matter how many times I told them that I didn't feel sorry for myself, they only spoke ofme assome one who is defective and a burden," says Harbilash.
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He was resolute, not only on helping with family chores, but doing something for himself.
"I did all these things for fun more than anything else," Harbilash said, recalling his childhood when he started to weave little things for his sisters.
Harbilash then took it upon himself to concentrate fully on making his handicrafts - from fishing nets to small furniture, and all if it could be done without the help of sight.
He says the drive took shape not only out of his own enthusiasm and doing something he enjoyed, but also to prove to his family, his friends, and most importantly, to dispel a niggling doubt of his own abilities.
His venture gradually grew from his humble beginnings of making fish nets and cane stools for his family to selling them commercially in the markets.
“After I made about a stool or-two a day, I would take them to the markets myself. I was comfortable living my life at home but without anybody's help,' said a proud Harbilash.
Family, friends, neighbours as well as random visitors to his house quickly began approaching him with respect, instead of pity.
Harbilash's path then crossed with Badiul Alam who runs an organisation that trains and assists disabled and ultra-poor women in various skills to make them self-reliant, economically and socially.
With over 310 beneficiaries in two upazilas of Barisal, Alam's organisation, . Drish.tihln -o Dusthokalyan Sangstha (DDKS), comprised of people that Harbilash
could empathise with such as Bakhtiar, who like Harbilash, lost his sight at two to chicken pox and made little handicrafts forsale.
Bakhtiarstudied with the help of Braille technology and was on course to complete his honours exams, and is married with a child.
Every couple of months, for three years, both Harbilash and Bakhtiar started to receive refresher training in handicrafts to enhance their skills what were limited to making cane goods with additional training on social awareness and mobility orientation for the visually challenged.
Harbilash then started to put all his time behind the elements of his training, from the minute technical changes to feeling his way around the design of his products.
His improved products such as cane stools and baskets were marketed by DDKS like of other disabled individuals who acquired handicrafts, weaving and tailoring skills at the centre.
"1 couldn't sell my products regularly because store-owners usually ridiculed me out of stores so I had to sit on the side of the road and sell them myself. Now that DDKS takes the products to stores, I can hear people being more respectful and I have more time to do what I like doing the most," says a lively Harbilash on his livelihood.
Rushing through the patterns of his cane stool, Harbilash gives Bakhtiar a helping hand.
"I like working and I do not particularly mind earning a living from it, but my likes and dislikes come from my wish and that wish can only, live when pepplc like Badiul Bhai (DDKS head) start to appreciate my work."