Jibon Willam Gomes is a sparkling example of how determination, will and optimism can overcome the biggest of obstacles that one may have.
He was born in a dispensary in Bonpara of Natore district. While still an infant, he fell on a concrete ground and suffered cerebral palsy.
His parents were always worried about the future of the eldest of their two children, and tried everything they could despite financial limitations.
When Willam was four, his father brought him to Dhaka for better treatment. But a year and a half later, they had to go back to their village in the middle of treatment because they were broke.
He remembers how he gradually became aware of being different from other children around him. He felt pain in his heart whenever he tried to run around and play with his three-year-old sister Kushum.
He asked his mother why he could not walk or do the things that the other kids do. The only answer she could ever give her special child was tears.
Despite all odds, his mother wanted his son to get a master’s degree. When he was six, his mother brought him textbooks.
With help from his parents, friends, relatives and teachers, he gradually passed through the stages of kindergarten, primary and high school in Bonpara. In 1992, he passed SSC with a first division.
He then got admitted to Notre Dame College in Dhaka. But soon after, he was struck by the next big tragedy in his life – his father got married for the second time and their family fell apart. Inevitably, he failed in the HSC examination in 1994.
However, Jibon was not the kind of person to give up. Greatly inspired by Bhabesh Roy’s book and some of his college mates, he rebuilt his determination and passed the HSC examination next year.
During the vacation after the examination, he received free computer training from the Social Assistance and Rehabilitation for Physically Vulnerable (SARPV).
In 1997, he got a BSC degree from Tejgaon College in the capital.
A year later, he joined the SARPV as a Computer Instructor-Operator. Simultaneously, he opened a computer-training centre at home. He continued with his studies and completed his MSC in Psychology in 2002 from Dhaka College, considering that the discipline would help him work with people with mental disabilities.
In April 2003, SARPV promoted him to the post of a programme officer and gave him the opportunity to work more widely with people with disabilities.
In 2001, he received the Archbishop Ganguly Literacy Award 2001 for a story published in the special Christmas issue of the weekly Pratibeshi.
He worked with the France-based organisation Faith and Light as a coordinator of one of the four communities in Bangladesh from 1996 to 2002 and as a secretary of the Committee for Pilgrimage of the People with Disabilities from 2001 to 2004.
In April 2004, he joined the Action on Disability and Development (ADD), a UK-based international organisation, as a Human Rights Promoter. He was stationed in his hometown Natore and then in the neighbouring Bogra district to work directly at the grassroots level.
In July 2005, he joined Caritas Bangladesh as a program officer of a project titled Development Initiatives for the People with Disabilities (DIPD).
Exactly two years later, he joined the Handicap International, a France-based international organisation working 59 countries, as a project manager of the Cooperation Programme with Abilis Foundation in Finland. He has since been working as an Abilis facilitator in Bangladesh.
In April 2012, he launched a new organisation titled Turning Point Foundation, which envisions an inclusive society where every person with and without disabilities will enjoy equal rights. Now they are running several projects with this goal in Kaliganj of Gazipur.
He obtained yet another masters degree in Development Studies from Brac University in Dhaka.
He is married to Rani Olivia Rodrigues, who also works on people with disabilities at Caritas Bangladesh’s Dhaka regional office. They have a baby boy named Newton Irenaeus Francis Gomes.
William said: “I would like to inspire all, both people with and without disabilities to go on, with as much patience as possible, and work for a better future, away from the darkness, frustrations and hopelessness.” Currently, he is working for setting up a specialised centre for the most unattended people with deep disabilities.
