Enlighten the Future, Team: Jagori
Essence of Shadhinota: A Challenge 2011
Project: Enlighten the Future
Team: Jagori
Team Members:
1. Samira Musleh, BUET
2. Raiyan Abdul Baten, BUET
3. Nabila Jamal, IBA
4. Abu Raihan, BUET
5. Md. Nahid Hossain Khan, AIUB
6. Jayed Talukder, AIUB
7. Saiyara Hamid, DU
Mentor: Essence Grad. Neamah Islam, IBA
Assignment:
Challenge: Visit Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP), Mirpur.
Your goals: Donate some equipment to CRP that they need or get information from them about poor patients who need equipments and donate to these patients. Raise awareness about CRP. Be creative.
Helpful tip: You can combine both these targets (raising more money for donation and raising awareness about CRP) by selling CRP cards made by quadriplegic patients.
Given Budget: 5000/- BDT
Research: Write a full featured investigation paper on CRP to get knowledge about human-technology interaction in CRP. Take as many case studies as possible, include check the age range of the participants, their genders, financial condition, education Level, does s/he use mobile phone? Their computer literacy, availability of Computer and Internet, available free time, security issues and maintenance. Try to get in-depth information on technology usage and opportunity.
Date of Submission: April 10, 2011
LogBook
March 26: Opened a group on Facebook to maintain easy contact with each member of the team.
March 27: Samira browsed the CRP website, acquired relevant information and shared them with the rest of the group.
March 28: Raiyan, Saiyara and Rusha visited CRP, Mirpur and inquired if any patient is in need for assistance within our range.
March 29: Plabon and Samira visited Mirpur CRP to learn more about the patients there and to get a vivid idea about the chances of a project there.
March 30: 1.Raiyan and Raihan visited CRP, Savar. By then we unanimously determined to seek to offer someone from the Savar branch instead of Mirpur.
2.Decided to help Md. Rezaul Karim, a patient soon to be released from CRP, Savar. The initial plan was to repay the loan he took in order to purchase the printer.
3. Jayed made a poster highlighting our project.
March 31: Raiyan, Plabon, Saiyara and Samira visited CRP, Mirpur to start off with the case study. We interviewed the patients who were stationed in the general wards.
April 1: 1.The team members discussed on how to raise funds by selling CRP merchandises. Each member proposed the quantity of goods they may be able to sell.
2. Jayed designed a poster about the disabled people.
April 2: 1. Samira and Jayed visited CRP, Mirpur to purchase the products.
2. Raiyan, Raihan and Saiyara collected goods from Samira.
April 3: 1. Saiyara visited CRP, Mirpur to collect more goods.
2. Samira and Rusha collected some of these goods from Saiyara.
3. Raihan wrote a blog calling for help for Al-Amin, a 16-year-old CRP patient whose whole body got paralyzed after falling from palm tree.
April 4-5: 1. Saiyara collected more merchandise from Jayed and Plabon.
2. Members were engaged in fund raising activities.
April 6: 1. Members turned in cash made from sales.
2. Samira, Raiyan and Raihan had a meeting to sum up the accounts and decide on the next step.
April 7: 1. Raiyan and Raihan visited Savar to consult with the authority regarding what would be the better option: to help Rezaul repay the loan or to buy him a camera with which he can start his studio. The authority preferred camera and so did the team.
2. They, now joined by Plabon & Samira, purchased the camera from IDB Bhaban.
3. Distributed work between group members on report writing, logbook compilation and constructing the presentation.
April 8: 1. All of us passed the day preparing the work assigned to us individually. No meeting or field work today.
April 9: 1. Raiyan, Raihan, Plabon & Jayed visited CRP Savar & handed the camera over to Rezaul’s father, as Rezaul has already got released & went back to Sirajgonj & it was a bit expensive for him to come back to Dhaka again. We completed the donation in the presence of CRP authority.
2. Report, article, logbook, accounts, photographs etc are being given the final touch.
See also:
Project Report
Essence of Shadhinota!
On 26th March, 2011, under the project ‘Essence of Shadhinota’ of Community Action, we were assigned a social service task to carry out in CRP. We started our work under the team name ‘Jagori’, for the project ‘Enlighten the Future’. We chalked out our plan as a part of the 26th March workshop. Our initial plan was to help out the teenage patients of CRP Mirpur by donating them equipments that will help them earn their living, so that they will not have to depend on others. We planned to increment our given budget by visiting their sales & display center(CRP-aware) that sells stuffs made by CRP patients, buying those & selling those to our family, friends, classmates & acquaintances.
About CRP
CRP (Center for the Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed) headquarters at Savar is about 20km north of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. CRP is a non-profit organization that treats & rehabilitates people with spinal cord injuries & diseases. It was established by Valery Taylor in 1979, starting with only 4 patients. CRP wants to promote an environment in which all disabled people can gain access to health, education, rehabilitation, outer environment, information & employment. It has a specialized 100-bed hospital, which treats both in- & out-patients with Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech & Language therapy. CRP has some other initiatives, such as ‘Half-Way Hostel’ for making patients ready to face challenges at home, ‘Pediatric Unit’ for treating children with autism & cerebral palsy & for training their parents, ‘Metal Workshop’ for manufacturing wheelchairs & other such devices from low-cost raw materials like rickshaw parts, ‘Special Seating Unit’ for designing special seats for disabled children, ‘Prosthetics & Orthotics Department’ for providing patients with medical supports, ‘Wood Workshop’ for making wooden therapy equipments for patients, ‘Madhab Memorial Vocational Training Institute’ that trains the patients in computer skills, tailoring, electronic repairs & shop management for becoming self-efficient after they finish receiving treatments, ‘William & Marie Taylor School’ for integrating disabled children into mainstream education & BHPI(Bangladesh Health Professionals Institute) for training therapists. CRP relies on the continuous support from various organizations & individuals from Bangladesh & abroad. Disease, road traffic accidents, & dangerous working conditions are all major causes of spinal injury in Bangladesh.
Course of Action
Get, Set, Go!
We started our work by surfing the internet for getting some basic information about CRP. We looked over their official website & opened a group on the web for carrying out regular discussions between the seven of us. Three of us (Raiyan, Hridi & Rusha) planned to go to the center on the following day. We got a bit disappointed on our first visit to CRP Mirpur, finding out that it is the commercial branch & people who are very poor or who need our help could be found in Savar. We were told that the sales center is also located in Savar. It was not that nobody wanted our help in Mirpur, but the patients stated no specific need, rather told that it would be nice if we can help them carry out their day-to-day expenses in CRP, which is approximately 10,000 taka per week. That was pretty hard for us with our limited budget, & this idea also did not really go according to our plan.
The manager of the Mirpur Branch helped us contact with the person in charge of the donation & projects. A physiotherapist also expressed her will to refer us to a few needy children, but we could not contact her. Carrying out our project in Savar posed some difficulty, because of problems in both transportation & time management.
As the days went by…
On the following day, we planned to split up into two groups, one heading for Savar CRP & one for Mirpur. Going to Mirpur was not of much use, we could not contact with the physiotherapist mentioned earlier. We managed to gather a few more case studies though, which showed that most of the patients of the Mirpur branch are paralyzed after having strokes, & their stories did not show much diversity. The Savar trip was canceled unexpectedly & was shifted on the next day.
CRP Savar
Some of us went to Savar, & at last we saw some light! We took some photographs, some case studies, & most importantly, found our target patients! We met two really needy persons, one is Rezaul Karim, who has taken vocational training in computer & needs help for paying his loan that he took for buying a printer, & another eligible is Al-Amin (16) who needs a mattress for his treatment costing 7000 taka. We resolved to help Rezaul. We also collected some awareness related CDs, some documentaries & some booklets from the office that will help in our research work.
CRP-Aware
CRP-aware is the Sales & Display Center of CRP. It houses various items manufactured by CRP patients, e.g. table calendars, cards, mobile carriers, vanity bags, shoulder bags, puzzles, kitchen aprons, wall hangers etc. At first we did not notice that it is on the ground floor of CRP Mirpur & thought we need to purchase things from Savar which stored only cards & notebooks. This sort of delayed our fundraising process by almost one week.
We made four visits to CRP-aware in total & bought mouth-painted cards, table calendars, vanity bags, shoulder bags, mobile carriers, kitchen aprons & a puzzle. We made a rough sketch to set a minimum price for selling the items. It was fun seeing people’s awed faces hearing that all these beautiful things are made by disabled people!
Wake-up Calls
In keeping with our field works, we also carried on making posters & writing blogs with a view to raising awareness about CRP. We also uploaded the posters & the photos of the stuffs made by CRP people on Facebook so that people come to know how brilliant works these disabled people are able to do!
Donable Remains, Donation Shifts!
At first, our plan was to help disabled teenagers become self-efficient. Then we shifted our plan to Rezaul Karim, & agreed unanimously to repay the loan that he took for buying a printer. But finally, we decided to buy him a camera instead, which would be an addition to the assets in his newly set-up business.
Summing the Accounts Up
Prior to shopping for the camera, we needed to manage the money. We collected the sales proceeds from all the group members that we earned by selling the stuffs. After a few hours of counting & calculating, we finally summed up the accounts.
Memorable Shopping Experience
As the deadline was approaching, four of us set out for buying the dream camera. At first we went to Multiplan Center in Elephant Road, but could not find any digital camera that best suited our purpose. Our requirements were to buy a 10+ megapixel digital camera with lithium-ion battery which also needed to meet our budget of 8000 taka. So we headed for IDB & after spending a good amount of time, found out the perfect camera, Samsung ES65, costing 7100 taka and a 2GB memory card that was 550 taka. It was undoubtedly the most satisfying shopping experience for us all!
Paper-works
We distributed the remaining works among ourselves: preparing the article, finishing the report, sorting out the photographs, updating the accounts, completing the logbook etc.
The Handover
We visited CRP Savar & handed the camera over to Rezaul Karim’s father. Rezaul was already released from CRP & had gone back to Sirajgonj, his hometown. He could not come as it is difficult for a disabled person to travel such a long distance like normal people. The officials of CRP were present at the time of donation. At last, after 2 weeks, our project seemed to come to an end!
Case Studies
Mujibur Rahman: Age 65 years. He is the Chairman of Shaheedbag thana of Rangpur district. Due to the nature of his duty as a social leader, he has to be constantly under stress and tension. People always come to him for seeking help in decision-making and for judgment calls. To go with that, he is also a patient of hypertension. All these led to his brain-stroke two years back, which paralyzed the lower half of his body. Since then he has been coming to CRP Mirpur for regular checkup and physiotherapy and things seem to be improving. He is well qualified and has completed his B.Com. He has 1 son and 3 daughters. He dreams of keeping on working for the poor.
Abul Kashem: Age 48 years. Studying up to HSC at Laxmipur, he went to Saudi Arabia and worked in a factory that produced Cassettes. He had to bear the expenses of a large family consisting of parents, brothers and sisters, wife and four sons, which put him under huge mental stress. He had a stroke on January 5, 2011 and has been paralyzed since. The authority of his company helped him get some treatment there but the cost of treatment was about 72000 taka daily which his company could not bear for too long. Soon he returned to Bangladesh and from February 5 this year he has been taking treatment from CRP Mirpur. The movement of his feet is on the way to improvement. Now he can move his hands quite well. He has no vocational training and his family has totally no income presently. More stressed now than ever before, dark future glaring at him, he has actually forgotten what the word ‘dream’ means and couldn’t tell us any of his plans or possibilities for the days to come.
Masud Hossain: Age 42 years. Well qualified in his educations, he completed Masters degree and joined a Private Company. December 8, 2010 he had a brainstroke at his office and was immediately sent to Lab Aid for medical treatment. After 3 weeks, he was referred to CRP for specialized care. Home district being at Gopalgonj, he has a son and lives in Mirpur, Dhaka with his family. The doctors have high hopes for his total recovery and the bottom half of his body is showing signs of improvement already.
Md Samiul Islam: Age 32 years. He worked as Chef at a restaurant in Greece. Has Hypertension and cholesterol problems and suffered a severe stroke on August 3, 2010. He took treatment there and returned home 3 months back. He completed his HSC from his home town Chapainobabgonj but did not continue his studies any further. He got married last year. Doctors hope for his full recovery from paralysis of his legs.
Miraj Ali Bormon: Age 70 years. On January 2011 he suffered a stroke and his left hand and left leg got paralyzed. Home at Jamalpur, he takes care of his family which consists of 6 daughters. Doctors estimate his full recovery to be achieved in 21 days.
Rafique Hossain: Age 62 years. He has suffered from 2 strokes. The first one happened 2 years back at Saudi Arabia where he worked as an air-condition mechanic and also as a driver for a living. The second one occurred on last Ramadan. He returned home on February 2011 and has been under the treatment of CRP ever since. With two sons and a daughter in his family, he lives at Gendaria. He has studied up to class nine and wishes to work here in his country once recovered. Doctors say it might take him 2 or 3 weeks more to recover completely.
Md Rafsani Mosaddek Pritom:
Pritom
Age 20 years. He has completed his HSC in 2010 from Narayangonj though his home district is at Munshigonj. 5 months back, a truck hit him hard while he was standing at the side of a road and evidently his entire body got paralyzed. His hands got bent and disfigured which couldn’t be helped even by an operation. His walking abilities have improved since he got admitted 3 months back. His father owns a pharmacy and he enjoys keeping in touch with his friends in Facebook.
Aditya Roy Orko: Age 11 years. He studies in class 4 at Bagura YMCA Public School. By birth, his left hand and the ankle of his right leg are disfigured. His dad is a govt. service holder. At his very early age, his parents took him to India for treatment and also went to BSMMU of Dhaka. But they made a mistake by not continuing his treatment as he grew up. Gradually the situation got worse. Now he is under the care of CRP Mirpur from where his parents have also completed a course of 14 days for better care of their child. Orko comes here routinely to take physiotherapy. He has two sisters and a brother. Orko enjoys watching cartoon and dreams of becoming an Engineer just like his elder sister.
Sondha: Age 8 years. She came to CRP in 2011 after falling from a tree. She has spinal cord problem. She studied up to class 1. Her father is a farmer.
Al Amin: Age 16 years. He fell from a palm tree on September 7, 2008. He came to CRP in 2009. His whole body is paralyzed except mouth and neck. He has already taken 82 bags of blood donation in his body at this age. He studied up to class 8 and is opting to enroll in Bangladesh Open University. He is now learning art in CRP rehabilitation program. He has a younger brother studying in KG. The most saddening factor is that his father is also in CRP with eye problem and Al Amin’s mother is the only eligible earning member. Now he needs a mattress which costs probably around 7000 taka for his better treatment.
Babu: Age 13 years. He is from Sirajgonj. He has problem in his spine. He did not go to school. His problem started when he attempted to open a door 2 year ago. His father sells vegetables.
Maruf Mia: Age 35 years. Way back in 2002 he injured his neck and spinal cord while carrying a large sack of paddy. Ever since he has been confined to a wheelchair as the lower half of his body is paralyzed. Doctors cannot give any hope for his complete recovery. Maruf mia is totally illiterate and has no vocational training either. He has a brother and a sister, the latter of whom runs the family now. It has been 1 month since he has come to CRP for treatment and therapy. Previously he stayed here for a year. He has a shop at Hobigonj and wishes to spread his business.
Moinul:
Moinul
Age 12 years. He is from Sitakundu, Chittagong. He has tumor in his spine. He came to CRP in 2010. He studied up to class 2. His father is a day-laborer.
Nazrul Islam: Age 35 years. In the month of Ramadan, 2010, he fell from a coconut tree and got severely injured. He cannot move his legs while he does not have total command over the movements of his hands as well. Luckily enough, someone in his locality knew about CRP and he was brought here immediately after the accident, with 5 major fractures. His father could not leave for his family anything at all, and he could not get education under such family state. He made his living by doing contractor works but now his income is totally at rest. His family is being run by relatives these 8 months he has been here. All he wishes to do is to start making a living once again. He just hates having to be dependent on others.
Md Shohag: Age 23 years. Studying up to SSC at his home district Brahmanbaria, he went to Saudi Arabia where his father used to work. On 5 august, 2010, he fell down from the roof of a one storied building while working as a carpenter and got his spine injured. Having got some treatment there, he returned home two months back. Doctors have high hope for his full recovery. He wishes to return to KSA once fully cured.
Shamima Akhter: Age 24 years. She had a brain stroke on 22 February, 2011 & was admitted to Samarita Hospital at first. From there she was transferred to BSMMU, & finally referred to CRP Mirpur. She studied up to HSC & lives in Brahmanbaria.
Marina Yeasmin: Age 60 years. She had a stroke on September 2011 & the right side of her body got paralyzed. She studied up to class 9. Her home district is Pabna. Her husband is a businessman.
Md. Alamgir: Age 45 years. He became senseless after a bus hit him at Farmgate, Dhaka about 7 months ago. He was in coma for about 3 months. He became mad after coma. He was taken to DMCH, Manikganj Hospital and then he came to CRP about 3 months ago. The lower part of his body is paralyzed. He studied up to H.S.C. and worked as a salesman for Philips Company before that accident happened. His home district is in Manikganj. He has a daughter and a son. His elder and younger brothers are teachers of high school. He wants to go back to his normal life. Interestingly, he invited us to visit his home if we ever go to his district.
Rima Khatun: Teen age. She got problem due to Polio. She has three brothers. She now tries to learn paper work under Occupational Therapy in CRP. She enjoyed her work in CRP. She studied up to class 3 and her home district is Rajshahi.
…& we decided to help Rezaul
About Rezaul
Aged 29 years, Md Rezaul Karim comes from the village Budargati of Roygonj thana, Sirajgonj. His father Mojibor (77) is a family supervisor and the only one with an income in the family. His mother is Rezia (54) and he has a sister Jahanara (37). Not a really well off family, they own 23 decimal of land, a house and a cow. He had studied up to his HSCs when the terrible accident took place – he fell from an Olive tree on 19 November 2009. After a month, on 22 December 2009, he got admitted into CRP when the lower half of his body (below waist) was completely paralyzed and he had 3 inflections to go with that. The diagnosis, in terms of medical science, would be called “Traumatic Paraplegia”.
After 282 days of specialized treatment, on 30.9.2010, Rezaul was released from treatment, with almost no hope for the recovery of the paralyzed part of his body. The treatment of Rezaul cost 296,100 BDT in total, of which he could pay around 17,000 BDT. Rezaul then joined the vocational training of CRP and got trained in computer operation. He learned MS Office and photo editing. The Social Welfare department of CRP promised to help him get established but urged him to take the initiative himself. Rezaul decided to use his computer skills to make a living. There are several educational institutions near his home at Sirajgonj. He decided to open a studio where he can take photos for academic needs and also do office paper-works. To set up the entire business, he needed a Desktop computer, a camera and a photo printer. Keeping their mustard field mortgaged, he managed enough money to buy a PC worth 41,500 BDT. A decent photo printer costs 12625 BDT, but Rezaul was able to collect around 6600 BDT. By that time, his date of release from CRP drew closer. The computer instructor of CRP’s vocational training, Lucky Madam, gave him the remaining money as loan to be repaid whenever Rezaul could. The photo printer was bought with that loan and Rezaul returned home with the PC and the printer.
The counselor of Rezaul, in his regular report updates, always mentioned him to be active, confident, mentally strong, highly motivated, eager in participation, and someone with a positive self image. The Social Welfare Department of CRP and the computer instructor also highly appreciated Rezaul’s active and enthusiastic nature.
Why Rezaul and not someone else?
All through our journey, we were strictly conscious about what we are meant to do in this project. We reminded ourselves of the objectives we had set for ourselves. ENLIGHTEN SOMEONE’S FUTURE. And that is where Md Rezaul Karim best suited our purpose.
As Mirpur CRP is the commercial branch of the institution, we could not find anyone suitable for a donation there. Patients there are quite well off. Even if they have need, it is not specific and we couldn’t find any suitable case that would satisfy our time and budget, and most importantly, our goal. Mr Abul Kashem was probably the poorest of all there; he needs a small device worth 200 BDT, which is within his range to buy. No one else we met needs any better help. No project of our goal could be carried out there.
At Savar CRP, however, we saw a different story. This branch is basically a social service section and here CRP is ready to help anyone anyhow at any cost. Even if the treatment costs in lacs, and the patient is unable to pay a penny, CRP is ready to help. We met a lot of people who have almost no income at all, and would have been really miserable if CRP weren’t by their side. Still, we found it hard to carry out our project as most of them need long term help. Their misery is rooted deep, and we felt helpless that we are unable to do much for them with our limited resources and deadline.
That is when we discussed our entire story with the Social Welfare Department of CRP and finally found the scope for helping someone to build a future, to overcome the curse of being paralyzed. They introduced Md Rezaul Karim to us. He is a young man of excellent enthusiasm, not being able to carry out his plans of opening a studio just because of resources lacking. With all the mortgage and loan money, he managed to buy a PC and a printer; but the camera was still beyond his reach. How can he take more loans when he was under the glare of so many already?
Another option for help was Al Amin, a teenager with a really sad tale. He needs a mattress for his treatment procedure. Miserable beyond imagination, his family cannot even support the most basic needs for life. Al-Amin’s needs are also long term and almost beyond our reach. CRP bears all of his treatment costs for free. Doctors have very thin hope for his full recovery.
We considered our position. Within our deadline and budget, we wanted to lessen the darkness of a victim’s future. Al-Amin is still an untrained teen, and he will be able to join the vocational training once his treatment is completed. And Rezaul’s bright future was just one obstacle distant. Why not help someone with the immediate need? We agreed to assist Rezaul. Initially we thought of helping him repay his huge burden of loans; but then we thought it would be better if we gave him the camera he needs to give him a boost in the business. The Social Welfare Department agreed with us and we proceeded with this plan.
Camera is handed over to Rezaul’s Father
We have planned to follow him up & see if our help will really help him. In order to do this, we will contact with him time to time by cell phone. The Social Service Department of CRP office also promised to do follow up on him & we plan to take updates from them. & if possible, we may pay him visits or contact with our acquaintances there to bring his news to us.
Experience
We are really grateful to ALLAH for giving us opportunity to live as a fit person in this world. It is the re-realization of us during working on this project. When we see Sondha, Babu, Al Amin and others we actually think us as the luckiest ones in this universe.
One of the most interesting experiences is our sudden meeting with Riyad bhai. He cannot speak properly and he also cannot write properly as his hands are always trembling. Though he has some disabilities there are some inspiring facts about him. He studied up to HSC. Now he is trying to enroll in Open University examination. He writes poems which got published in a magazine. He has a hobby of autograph collection. We can call him a traveler also as he has already visited 53 out of 64 districts in Bangladesh and he says he has prayed at almost 400 mosques of which our national mosque Baitul Muqarram is at number 99. He is also a self independent person & does mushroom business.
Another interesting factor is that he is now trying to build a website and that under construction site is http://porichoybd.com/. We could not imagine even in our dreams that we would meet a guy like him. It was a fabulous experience for us.
In this project we have worked in a group though we, the team members were completely unknown to each other even before two weeks, which is a new experience to us all. We all shared our responsibilities according to our individual schedule so that our work was always on progress. Facebook really helped us in continuing this collaborative teamwork.
Though it seems funny, we have learned to run a small business during fund raising, we have learned how to influence our own friends to make them buy the products. We made a mistake when on the first day, we went to the sales center & bought some items without much planning, because in the end it appeared that some items were sold off very quickly & people liked them very much, while some could not be sold at all & we had to buy those.
The important fact is when we were given 5000 taka and told to donate it; we actually did not know what to donate and whom to donate. But after visiting Mirpur and Savar Branch we saw many patients and we felt like donating each person individually. But our resources were limited. We then selected a person unanimously. Now, when we think that our donated camera may change the life of Rezaul and we are behind this, then a feeling comes across in our mind which cannot be described. It is the greatest experience we have ever had.
Obstacles
We faced our first obstacle right on the very first meeting: Schedule adjustment. We couldn’t fix a time when ALL seven of us could make it to Mirpur CRP! But as the days went by, we learned to ignore this problem and divide the works amongst us according to our individual schedules. We simply couldn’t find a single day on which all seven of could have a meeting. Thanks to Facebook, this problem was proved to be a paralyzed obstacle itself.
On our first visit to Mirpur CRP, we got several shocks. Collecting enough information to get started was a problem. We simply couldn’t find the right person to talk to. Everyone was referring us to someone else, which was really frustrating for us. We just had no idea where to start! We kept on talking to the officials. Eventually we figured out what we could do to progress with the project.
That’s when a real shock hit us. The financial condition of the patients was far better than what we expected. Eventually we learned that Mirpur was actually the commercial branch of CRP, so mostly the well-off patients can afford to take its service. Weekly cost of a patient is around 10000 taka there. For example, we found Mr Mujibur Rahman, who is actually the Chairman of his locality. So the Mirpur patients did not fulfill the criteria that we were aiming for. We learned that Savar branch was actually the social service center and decided to visit that place.
This is where we faced the strongest obstacle of all – distance. Not a single member of our group has any experience in field work, and we were all mentally prepared for a Mirpur project. Doing a project at such distance seemed to be a trouble to us. The female members of our group found it hard to get permission from home to go for a project to Savar, due to security problems. That shortened our manpower to a great extent and also threatened everyone’s participation in the project. Happy thing is, we didn’t let go of our mission, and simply moved on with it. We managed our schedules and visited Savar; kept the discussions alive on Facebook on daily basis. That way everyone participated and another obstacle was crossed.
Finding the right person for donation was indeed a challenge. Most of the poor patients need long term help for which we were not equipped to help. But after much discussion in our group, and with the advices from the Social Welfare Department of CRP, we finally decided on helping Md Rezaul Karim with a digital camera.
4th of April was Hartal day, which harmed our fundraising pretty much. We tried to recover it by working harder on the other days.
Getting everyone’s help for our project wasn’t smooth. We met a lot of people who were reluctant to co-operate.
Apart from these obstacles, the run was quite nice indeed. And thanks to Almighty, none of the obstacles proved to be too hard to overcome.
Awareness
We had many ideas, but not all of them were executable within our limited time and manpower. The Social Welfare Department of CRP provided us with many ideas such as arranging a seminar or going for a rally with which they were happy to help. But we found the ideas pretty expensive, and not suitable for our project.
Rather we went for the options close at hand. We tried to raise awareness among our friend circle, families and neighborhood by telling them about our project and about CRP. Facebook helped a lot, we updated our status accordingly.
During our fund raising period, we uploaded photo albums which became quite popular among our friends. We wrote blogs about the patients and about CRP to raise awareness. Again, while we were re-selling CRP products for fund raising, we told people exactly why we were reselling those things and what our motivation is. That too helped raising awareness.
Our manpower and fund restricted us from going for something bigger and better, such as making a short film and so on, but sadly that was not to be.
Acknowledgement
We are very grateful to CA for giving us opportunity to do this kind of social activity. We are also very thankful to Md. Shafi Ullah (Incharge, Social Welfare Unit, CRP), Azizul Haque Manik (Publication and Communication Officer), Polash Kundu (Donation Officer), Md. Motin (A well known guy in CRP for his role in an awareness film) and at last but not the least Lucky Madam (Md. Rezaul Karim’s instructor) from Tangail without whom our project could not be completed.
We also thank Sohaila apu and our mentor Neeamah for their suggestion on doing this project. Most importantly, we thank our friends who bought cards, calendars, bags from us and helped us in fund raising for this great work.
To conclude, it can be said that the role that CRP is playing in Bangladesh is worth so much. With co-operation from every sphere of society, enough donations & goodwill, this center can go a long way. The experience that we gathered from this project will remain fresh in our memory for years to come. Nothing can compare to the satisfaction gathered from helping the needy, more so when it gives with it the realization that how lucky we are & that is why we should always extend our helping hand to those who need them.
See also,
