Eid gift to brighten the darks days
Rafiqul Islam is a day labourer and has no work during the coronavirus pandemic. He has accompanied his son to the Gurihari-Kamdebpur Alor Pathshala run by the Prothom Alo Trust. The students of this school will be given special Eid gift packs. His son is thrilled to get the gift. It's Eid joy in advance!
These Eid gifts were distributed on Saturday at the initiative of Prothom Alo Trust, supported by Summit Group, at the Gurihari-Kamdebpur Alor Pathshala grounds in Niamatpur upazila of Naogaon. The event took off at 11:00pm and was attended by the Niamatpur UNO Joya Maria Pereira, the Pathshala headmaster Nur Alam, assistant headmaster Rajit Das, teachers and parents.
The UNO lauded this initiative by Prothom Alo, saying this showed that Prothom Alo was more than just a newspaper. They stood by people in times of distress. She advised the teachers to abide by the health and hygiene rules during the prevalence of coronavirus and called upon the parents to be conscious about this too.
Rafiqul Islam's son is a student of Class 8. Rafiqul said this was the third time during the pandemic that his son received relief from the Gurihari-Kamdebpur Alor Pathshala. He said as a day labourer, he lived hand to mouth. His daily earnings had almost come to a halt. He hardly had any work. It was a struggle to run the family. So this gift pack had brightened up their dark days.
There are many students of the ethnic community in this Alor Pathshala. Shubho Das is a student of Class 10. He said, "During Eid, our Muslims neighbours cook special food and celebrate. We feel like having a good meal too, but my father is very poor. He works in people's fields and if he can't work even one day, we suffer. We can't have a decent meal. But now we have received this gift of fine rice, regular rice, oil, semai and sugar. We will have a good time this Eid too!"
Class 6 student of the school, Fohad Babu, said, "We are two brothers. We do not have a father and our mother struggles to run the family. We haven't been able to celebrate Eid during coronavirus. We are overjoyed to get the Eid gift from the pathshala."