“We want to host you, invite you over to have some rice and vegetables with us.”
Brimming with excitement over finally having a permanent roof over her head, a home she can call her own, this is how the elderly Jahera Begum wanted to share pure joy with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina over a humble meal.
“My three daughters and a son, my handicapped husband, and I used to live on the bank of a canal,” Jahera said.
“Without a roof over our head, whenever there was rain or storm, we had to endure hell. My husband is no longer employable; the entire family survives on my income. As we were homeless, people looked down on us. We were treated like outcasts,” she recounted.
With tears rolling down her face, Jahera thanked the PM for the house given to her under the Ashrayan-2 project.
This is Jahera’s first house.
On Wednesday, a total of 22,101 people became beneficiaries of the project after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared another 12 districts and 123 upazilas free of homeless and landless people.
“I am now a proud owner of a house with two rooms and it’s a blessing. I never thought I’d be a homeowner in this lifetime.”
For Abdur Rahim, father of four daughters, who earns a living pulling rickshaws, life now has a new meaning with the new home.
“We used to stay at the base of a bridge and were at the mercy of the weather,” he recalled.
“What you have given us is surely going to change the course of our lives. We are grateful for your motherly gesture,” Rahim thanked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The Ashrayan project has provided land and homes to thousands of disadvantaged people since the celebration of “Mujib Year” marking the 100th birth anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during 2020-21.