Recently, in a conversation with the Dhaka Tribune, Hazera unveiled how she began her journey: “I started working with Durjoy Child Care Centre which rehabilitates children of sex workers in Savar. Since 2009, no donor could be found to support the center and the project was shut down in 2010. The funding crisis became so acute that Durjoy requested several mothers to take their children back. However, there were other children left out.”
Hazera was wondering how to take care of these innocent children. She did not want them to grow up in brothels.
She said: “If they were raised in brothels, girls would be dragged into prostitution and the boys would have to endure seeing customers visiting their mothers on a daily basis, which could turn them into aggressive teenagers. Many of them might end up as pimps or petty criminals.”
She talked the situation over with students of Jahangirnagar University who used to work as volunteers for these children and came up with the idea to open a child care centre for the children of sex workers.
In 2010, she started her journey with two-three children under the banner of “Shishuder Jonno Amra,” a government registered organisation.
The 44-year-old woman then moved to Adabar and began rehabilitating children of sex workers. Currently 30 children, ranging from one to twelve year-olds, are rehabilitated in her centre in a four room house.
Hazera said she has sent two girls, aged thirteen, to one of the top boarding schools in Bangladesh with support from private individuals to keep them away from their mothers.
Hazera was sexually assaulted as a minor and knows the dark side of the world. “I do not want my children to suffer like I did. I send every children to school, an opportunity I never got. For the little ones, I provide a private tutor to teach them basic education.”
“It is tough for me to bear all the costs. The rent for the centre is Tk20,000. Then I have to meet school fees, private tuition fees, and wages for three house keepers. Shopon, a three-year-old diffrently-abled boy, needs medical treatment often.”
“Most of their mothers never come to see them. However, when a girl turns twelve, they ask me to take her with them. I know they will put her into prostitution. I convince them the girls would have a bright future in this centre.”
“These children call me ma, and are not aware of their mothers’ identity or profession. I tell them they work in RMG sectors or are domestic workers,” she said.
When asked where the fund come from, she replied: “Private individuals donate food and money. And students and volunteers from different organisations provide whatever is possible for them. It would have been easier for me if I could avail a government land and rehabilitate them.”
Robin, a thirteen-year-old boy under Hazera’s care, studies in class seven; he said he wants to be an engineer. Sujan, a minor boy believes one day he will become a police officer. Nine-year-old Fatema said she wants to be a doctor. These children believe that they are all siblings and one day they will prosper in life.
One of the girls, Airin, suffers from malnutrition. Her mother Sultana said this is the best place she could afford for her child’s mental development. “I left my child’s fate up to Hazera and my God,” said Hazera quoting Sultana.
Every five or six months, a group of volunteers come with professional doctors for medical check-up of the students.
