2018 Blogs
Head of The Family but Still A Child
When Tania was 5, life felt normal. Her mother ran their home in Khulna, Bangladesh, taking care of her and her sister, Suriaya, who was just a baby at the time. Her father, Somir Hawlader, worked selling cosmetics at a travelling fair.
Tania didn’t have to work. She could play with her friends. She even used to go to school.
But nine years ago, Somir was brutally attacked and robbed whilst working, leaving him blind.
“They snatched me and threw acid on my eyes,” Somir says. “They broke my arm and hit my head. After about 10 minutes, I felt my eyes becoming paralyzed, and I couldn’t see.”
Afterwards, he couldn’t work or care for his family, and it took its toll on his wife. She left him a year later, leaving Tania, then 6, to run the house and care for Suriaya, who was just 18 months old.
Whilst attending school each day, Tania would also go to the market to buy food and cook it and learn how to do all the cleaning, laundry, and household chores.
Somir receives a government ration of about US $6.25 a month because of his disability, but it wasn’t enough to support his daughters, so he was forced to turn to begging on the streets. But after a crackdown on begging, the government then helped people by providing them with cups to sell tea on the streets, but Somir couldn’t see the currency people handed him or how full the cup was when he poured.
“If I would like to sell tea, I would need to take my younger daughter,” he says. “I can’t take my older daughter because people will stare at her, and I’m concerned for her safety.”
It’s a common concern for parents of girls in Bangladesh, where women are seen as inferior, treated differently than men, and often married off younger than the legal age of 18. To avoid bringing unwanted sexual attention to Tania, he takes Suriaya, now 10, which means she misses school.
She is out of class just one day a week, but multiplied week after week, year after year, Suriaya will quickly fall behind and may eventually drop out. Tania doesn’t want to see her sister leave school like she finally had to three years ago.
“I miss school. I wanted to be a nurse and help the children here. I liked to study Bangla — I like the rhymes and poems,” she says. Tania can still read, but very slowly and says, “I have forgotten many things.”
But instead of going to school, Tania spent many of her days peeling piles of icy shrimp — squatting for eight-hour shifts with just a 20-minute break, at a local fish depot.
Tania got injured a lot, cutting herself on the sharp part of the fish that’s like a razor blade. The shrimp are kept in large barrels of ice, and her hands would get so cold she’d lose some of the feelings so cut her fingers even more.
“I’d get severe pain with my cuts, so would put water in a pot and dip my fingers in there when they would get hard from the cold, but I’d still get cut almost every time.”
During the off-season, she worked for just a few hours, a couple days a week making between US 50 and 75 cents a day. During the busy season, her boss would come to her home and wake her in the middle of the night and she had to get up and go in. For her overnight work of about seven to eight hours, she might earn about US $1.85.
Things started to change for Tania when World Vision began a Child-Friendly Learning and Resource Centre (CFLRC) in May 2017 in her community.
The centre is part of a new project called Jiboner Jannya, which means “well-being of life,” and aims to help about 51,000 adults and children like Tania in the region. The program is working to protect some of the most vulnerable children who are at risk of the worst forms of child labour, abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
The program uses games, skits, and group activities to teach children life skills, such as how to work past disagreements by finding solutions that benefit both parties. But children also learn about their rights to protection and the dangers of labour, trafficking, and abuse.
World Vision staff work with the children’s employers and families so that youngsters like Tania can attend the centre for a few hours each day. With fewer hours to work, staff also work with parents like Somir to teach them how the centre will benefit their children and even why kids need to learn and be protected. By spending time with the parents to educate them about the program, answer their questions, and also learn about their struggles, families feel empowered to send their children to the CFLRC.
“I like the programs. Whenever World Vision runs a program, they take care of their children. They ensure their participation and make sure they reach home safely,” says Somir.
Additionally, World Vision provides income assistance to help families compensate for the wages lost by their children attending the centre in the near term. But that’s just a temporary solution. To see long-term change, parents learn new job skills that can help them create better, sustainable livelihoods for their families as well.
At the centre, Tania now dreams of building a tailoring business. In addition to educational opportunities, the CFLRC also provides vocational training for older children.
In the summer of 2017, Tania received two months of tailoring training, and World Vision also provided her with a sewing machine and fabric, so she could start her own business. She now works at home, where she is safe, and she has enough time to care for her father and sister. With the 80 takas (US $1) she’s earning every day, she can afford three meals for her family. But even though Tania is still working, she at least now can sleep without fear of being called into work, and she has more time to rest, watch television, and play.
“Thanks, World Vision, for rescuing me from shrimp work,” Tania says. “Once my dream was to become a nurse, but now my ultimate goal is to establish a big tailoring store and feed my family.”