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From street child to development activist

Md Fazlur Rahman
***"We have developed a model so that a child can establish and recover their lost dreams and become skilled and efficient. If the government increases its budgetary allocation for children and policymakers become active and support our ejforts, then we will be able to continue our work”***
AT the age of seven, he boarded a train at Pahartali Station in Chittagong in 1989. Detached from his family and alone, he didn't know where he was headed. In the next few years, Shafiqul Islam Khan worked as an urchin and was raised as a street child.
It is with intervention from a non-profit organisation that he was able to escape poverty. A self made man, he is now a development activist himself.
“When I boarded the train, I did not know my destination. I was taken direcdy to Dhaka at the Kamalapur Railway Station, where I stayed for about three years. I worked as a moot and used to wash utensils around the station to make a living," he toldThe Daily Star on Saturday.
Reminiscing his past, Khan said he has one sibling and his mother had worked in a garments factory. "My mother was always outside during the daytime. As a result, I enjoyed a lot of freedom and did not go to school."
In 1991, he enrolled in an open school set up by Aparajeyo-Bangladesh, a non-profit organisation for the disadvantaged street-children. "The female teachers of the school forced me to get enrolled.”
Khan did not like the school on the first day as he could not trust the group of students there. He was scared that they would be engaged in illegal activities where people cut off the kidneys and other limbs and take blood from the street children to sell.
“I did not like studying at all as it was fun and games on the station."
After two years he began attending school regularly. In 1995, the school offered him to join a residential club, run by Aparajeyo-Bangladesh.
At first, he did not also like the club. There, he worked as a presenter on a programme at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, on the sidelines of a conference. “It boosted my confidence. Later, I participated in a lot of programmes.”
They shifted him to a hostel in 1997. "I passed class eight from Underprivileged Children's Educational Programme (UCEP), staying at the hostel. I also joined as a motivator at the same open school.”
Khan left Aparajeyo-Bangladesh in 2004 and joined 'Apon', an organisation that deals with addicts. At the time he got in touch with his family and reunited with his widow-mother and brother in Chittagong.
The 29-year-old now works as a senior programme officer of the Chittagong-based Juganta Shomaj Unnayan Shongstha. He also runs an organisation called 'Voter Alo' for children. It deals with 1,300 children. Of them, five girls have got admission at a nursing school.
He also managed sponsorship for another female student who is studying at a medical college. “This is a big achievement for an organisa-
tion like Voter Alo. I know their pains, as I was once a disadvantaged child,” said Shafiqul, who is a graduate now.
He plans to dedicate his life to the causes of children and help them become leaders. “I also want to expand Vorer Alo so that I can reach out to more disadvantaged children.”
There are about 6.5 lakh street children in Bangladesh, according to estimates carried out in 2005, said Wahida Banu, executive director of Aparajeyo-Bangladesh. But the social welfare ministry thinks the number could be near 10 lakh.
She said more and more children are living on the streets and vulnerable due to poverty, natural disasters, a split in the family, and greedy relatives who bring them to the city and to sell them off.
Founded in 1995, Aparajeyo-Bangladesh is a national child rights organisation and is currently supporting 1.37 lakh children through open air
street schools, drop-in centres, residential clubs, emergency night shelters and hostels in Dhaka, Chittagong and Barisal.
About 10,000 children will soon be rehabilitated in society, Banu told The Daily Star.
Recently, the organisation launched a business centre with the help of skilled children, who are working as beauticians or in the apparel and IT sectors.
“Our children are running the centre. We have also opened a beauty parlour, which is run by the children.”
Banu said the children in her organisation are also running a bank — Shishu Unnayan Bank. “There are 17 such banks. The children are the managers and deputy managers of the bank. They are trained as professionals."
“We have developed a model so that a child can establish and recover their lost dreams and become skilled and efficient," she said.
“If the government increases its budgetary allocation for children and policymakers become active and support our efforts, then we will be able to continue our work."
Banu said they are still dependent on foreign aid. Only three projects are run on government funds. “I think we need more support from the government and the community to cut our reliance on donor money.”
The development activist urged lawmakers to draw up a social safety net scheme for their respective constituencies. “If we can do that, no child will be left out and be engaged in risky work or illegal trade.”
She said the government, politicians, local community, corporate houses, and business chambers need to work together to help the country get rid of the problem.
Banu, who has been working with Aparajeyo-Bangladesh since its inception, said her organisation now plans to work with the youth so that they can take up leadership of the organisation.
fazlur.rahman@thedailystar.net