FROM PAGE 12

Netrokona in 2012 when she was just three. Her father was a drug user; her mother remarried. “She doesn’t tell her new family about me. She visits every few years.”

Mitu now dreams of being a tour guide. “I used to think girls like us don’t get to dream. But now I know -- we can.”

Seventeen-year-old Zidne came from a cycle of abuse by both her father and stepfather. “I never really had a ‘home’. But now, I want to build my own, brick by brick.” She scored GPA 3.22.

Kajol, 17, raised amid poverty and abuse in Barishal, came to Happy Home as a toddler. She scored GPA 4.50. “My mother now lives alone and is unwell. I want to earn enough to stay with her. She’s all I have.”

Sumaiya, 17, topped the group with GPA 4.93. “My mother remarried and barely cared for me. It was my grandmother who fed me, even when she went hungry. Now, I want to be a nurse and take care of her.”

Seventeen-year-old Bonna grew up watching her father gamble away everything. “He sold it all. He beat my mother. Left us with nothing.” Though she came to the shelter unwilling at the age of six, it’s now her home. “I want to be a photographer -- to tell stories of girls like us.” She scored GPA 4.79.

Hasina Parven, education in-charge at Happy Home, treats each child as her own. “I fill their forms, chase attendance, visit classrooms. I wait outside exam halls like a mother.”

“This isn’t a job for me; it’s a moral duty. When I place a pen in a girl’s hand, I’m helping her fight for a future where she won’t have to beg, bow down, or break.”

But there’s a deadline looming. Happy Home provides support only until the girls turn 18.

“We call this home,” Mitu said. “But we also know one day, we’ll be on our own.”

Without a structured transition plan, most girls hope to continue studying, but money remains a worry.

Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid Bangladesh, said, “When I took this project on, I knew it wasn’t a three-year gig. For 18 years, I’ve fought to give these girls the safety and dignity every child deserves.

“But Happy Home was never meant to replace society. At 18, they must move on -- and we prepare them to thrive.”

Some return as volunteers, some enter work, and some lose touch.

But for now, the girls of Happy Home have reason to celebrate. In a country where child marriage, domestic violence and abandonment run rampant, their success is a rare, remarkable win.