KHURSHID JAHAN

Tigress of the Sundarbans

Khurshid Jahan lived an ordinary life in Khulna before she died on February 19. But she is an image of strength and independence to her grandchildren, who grew up listening to her tales of how she fought for the freedom of

Bangladesh.

Khurshid was a college student and mother of a five-month-old baby when she joined the Liberation War of

1971.

"I was recruited to scrutinise new comers and arrange training for them, especially women,"shesaidin an interview with The Daily Star last year.

The then 21 -year-old mother wanted to be in the frontline, but her commander persuaded her to oversee the nursing of injured freedom fightersand training of new fighters.

She would hop on boats to anyoftheMcampsin the forest to treat injured fighters, give logistical support and even spy on them to see if any ofthem was traitor.

Khurshid lived a very active life as a banker and then with her family after retirement. She died of oral cancer at the age of 69. She would take her grandchildren-Ruffin Saswan Zaman, 13, and

Wriddho Jyotirmoy Zaman, 7, to the village, to swim and spend time with them. She liked to live with all her family members together, | which is why her family still lives in a joint family, says her sonAsaduzzamanTaj.

HIROKO KOBAYASHI From Japan with love

Ninety-year-old Japanese national Hiroko Kobayashi is a teacher of Ikebana,the Japanese art of flower arrangement, and a photographer. But these are not the skills she is well known for in Bangladesh. Rather, it is for the generosity she demonstrated towards advancing women's education.

From her own initiatives, she has financially supported over 100 Bangladeshi girls to complete their school and college degrees in Jhenidah and Panchagarh.

It all began in 2003, when Hiroko first came to Bangladesh to work for Japanese NGO Hunger Free World and heard that a female student in Kaliganj of Jhenidah had died by suicide allegedly for not having enough money to appear in her Higher School Certificate exam.

Hiroko, who herself faced financial challenges growing up, decided to stand beside the poor female students.

The only condition she places on the scholarship recipients is that they promise not to marry until they are well-established. She also hopes that they will, in turn, help other poor students in future.

"Hiroko visits Bangladesh every March,"says Hunger Free World Director Anjuman Aktar.

"She says she will run the scholarship programme for as long as she lives."

BILKIS BAND Caring for the uncared for

Bilkis Banu could have spent a life of luxury with what she and her in-laws had. Instead, she chose something bigger -to serve children who had no one to look after them. Inspired by the services of Mother Teresa towards the poor and abandoned, she established an orphanage -Golap Kha Shishu Sadan in

Nageshwari upazila of Kurigram - on a piece of land owned by her husband's family. It is now home to 75 children.

Bilkis has always been passionate about helping out children in need. She used to take care of five orphans at her home as well as providing free tuition to poor children in her neighbourhood. She was especially moved in the winter of 1999 whena mentally challenged woman cametoherwithababygiri, failing to take care of the child.

Bilkis took her in and named her Pritilata.

That night, she dreamt about Mother Teresa. It was then that she and her husband Rabiul Islam decided to build an orphanage.

Bilkis, 45, provides the orphans with formal education, while they also take part in physical exercise and cultural events atthe establishment.

The orphanage is funded by the earnings of the family, farmland, a hostel, and some private donors. Bilkis has । future plans to construct a new orphanage complex on 2.25 acres of her family land. "I will do everything needed to fulfil the wishes of the children in whatever field of study they choose ...My aim C

is to raise these children as t good human beings," says Bilkis, who herself could not v

study beyond the higher secondary school level. CHHOBI DAS GUPTA

Worker to la entrepreneur

j, Poverty had forced Chhobi

r Das Gupta to drop out of

1 school before completing th secondary level but her indomitable spirit and hard work made her an entrepreneur from a garment worker After the death of her father about 20 years ago, Chhobi started working at a garmeni i factory when she was only

12. Though she had to support her family of seven members, she did dream of pursuing education further and become an entrepreneur one day.

She got herself admitted to the Bangladesh Open

University but once again had to pause due to financial distress. This time, however, she had her target fixed in mind and thus kept on saving money accordingly. After 18 long years, Chhobi established her factory "Sense Fashion"in Chattogram early in 2016. Initially she had six workers, 10 sewing machines, and a capital ofTk 7 lakh -Tk 5 lakh in savings and the rest from loans. With skills and hard work, Chhobi expanded the business and today has 60 sewing machines and more than 100 employees working for her company.

"There was a time when I had to wait for salary every month to feed my family.

Today, I disburse Tk 6 lakh as monthly salaries to my workers," said the 32-year-old lady hailing from Pashchim Sholkata ofChattogram's

Anwara upazila.

Chhobi is grateful to her husband Amalendu Das

Gupta and his friend DipankarDastidar who stood by her during the rainy days.

"Without their support, I would not have reached this stage,"shesaid. HAZERA BEGUA A mother of 40

Hazera Begum's childhooc i was marred by three thing -misery, neglect, and le struggle. But she turned al

those into driving forces am I becamethe"amma"of40

underprivileged children, r. Most of these children r biologically belong to sex

workers but Hazera, who it herselfwas a sex worker

until the age of 23, is nurturing them like a mother at a childcare centre in the capital.

Hazera left home at the age r ofeight to escape from the

torture unleashed by her step-mother. Initially, she lived on the streets but later got forced into prostitution. But the motherly soul deep inside her made her say good bye to the profession and start afresh.

Hazera runs"Shishuder JonnoAmra", a childcare centre at Dhaka's Adabor neighbourhood. The 40 children living there attend nearby schools, eat, and play -all in a safe, homely environment.

Hazera, 48, had opened the centre with her savings. She had worked fora development organisation for some time after giving up sex work. Individual donors help herrun the centre.

Hazera said she came up with the idea of establishing such a centre out of concern for sex workers' children who have "no identity, rights or future”. She feels no less than a mother when she takes care of the children most of whom have been abandoned by their families. "These kids are my family. I am embracing motherhood with these children," she said. I RUPA DUTTA Championing a school rebuild

Rupa Dutta, 35, got an ; opportunity to visit the remote parts of Bandarban while working for an intema-. tional organisation in

Chattogram in 2013. There, she discovered a school at Champajhiri Para in Gajaliya union of Lama.

Itmadehersadtoseethat the school had only one teacher, whose monthly salary was Tk 1,500. While the salary was paid by a missionary, the teacher had to work on a farm to make ends meet and could not concentrate on teaching the 11 students at the school.

Rupa decided then and there to contribute to the teacher's salary and expand the school.

"I approached my friends Miti, Rajib, Rana and Sanjay to join me in me in serving the indigenous communities." They agreed and the venture for the Mro children started.

They named the school Pawmang (flower garden) and eventually helped its renovation. They also set up a hostel in 2015 with contributions from friends. The village chief Long Tui donated five acres as well.

Different organisations including Colouring Little's Mind, Vertical Dreamers and Crack Platoon contributed to the school that now has 103 students from pre-primary to Class-V. Rupa said there is a committee comprised of locals, guardians and teachers to manage the school. "We are advisers and want the committee to take the leadership role."

Atotal of 21 students who graduated from the school are now in high schools.

Sanjay Kumar Nath said they rented a hostel in Bandarban town for the high-school students.

"We have started gardening, tree plantation and fish farming to make the school self-reliant,"he said.

SALMA CHOUDHURY

Understanding children with

cancer

Salma Choudhury has seen the worst of cancer as she lost her son Ashiq Husain

Choudhury to the disease in May 1993 in London. The boy was three years, three months and three days old. But instead of drowning into sadness, she felt for other mothers going through similar situation, hence founded "A Shelter for Helpless III Children" (ASHIC), Bangladesh's first NGO dedicated to children with

cancer.

Founded in 1994, the charity aims to support children fighting with cancer and their parents with love, compassion, and empathy. Salma and her husband Afzal Husain

Choudhury donated their familial property to set up a shelter at Dhaka’s Bangla Motorand a palliative care unit in Dhanmondi.

The foundation also runs four play centres at paediatric units at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, and

Chittagong Medical College Hospital.

The shelter accommodates children along with their parents for free when they come from outside Dhaka for treatment. The palliative care unit gives comfort to the terminally ill patients.

Salma says her heart leaps with joy when children, with support from ASHIC, continue the lengthy treatment process and finally recover. "I have suffered a lot and I know other mothers who are in the same situation. I am happy to see children surviving cancer,"she told this paper.