Will Sumaiya's dreams ever come true?
It was 3 February, Thursday night. My uncle, aunt and I had set out to distribute blankets to the homeless poor on the streets of Chattogram, in the bone-chilling cold.
After distributing the blankets on different footpaths along the Arkan Road between Kaptai Rastar Matha and Bahaddarhat, we returned to Kaptai Rastar Matha at around 11:00pm.
While we were looking for more people to give the blankets, I happened to notice a little girl in a blue school uniform standing in front of a grocery store. She was with two of her younger siblings.
I asked her, "Do you feel cold?" She replied, "Yes," nodding her head. I handed over a blanket to her and asked her name. "Thank you bhaiya. My name is Sumaiya."
Sumaiya was ten years old and with her were her brother Emon, 7, and sister Lima, 8.
"Can you give me another blanket?" she requested. "We have only one blanket for five people including my parents at home." I gave her two more and she sweetly said, "Thank you."
I asked her whether she went to school. She smiled and answered she went to school but didn’t know what class she is studying in.
"I used to learn A, B, C, D and ka, kha, ga, gha at school. I want to study and become a doctor one day. But I am begging on the streets instead of reading books as we need money to survive," Sumaiya said.
She said her mother, Halima, is a domestic help while father, Belal, is unemployed. They are from Hatia in Noakhali live in Ambagan area of Chandgaon in Chattogram, paying a monthly rent of Tk 1,200.
"My mother drops us here at Kaptai Rastar Matha in the morning and takes us home at night. Mother comes to us in the afternoon. We three siblings have been doing this for a month. We don’t know how long we will have to drag this on," she said rather sadly.
I hope one day she will call and inform me that she is going to school again and is working towards making her dreams come true. I am waiting for that call...
According to Sumaiya, they can make Tk 150 to 200 per day. Then they hand over the income to their mother. When asked about lunch, she said "Sometime we eat and sometimes not. We usually eat leftovers from nearby hotels."
She used to work as a domestic help. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, she had to leave the job.
After hearing her ordeal, I gave her my cell number to call me so I could find out how they were doing, but I am yet to receive her call.
Maybe she hasn’t found any cell phone to call my number or maybe she lost my number while running after pedestrians seeking a penny. Maybe the piece of paper with my number is of no value to her. Instead, she is struggling to get paper that counts, money that will help them survive.
I hope one day she will call and inform me that she is going to school again and is working towards making her dreams come true. I am waiting for that call...