World Visions

Bangladesh: Sumaya’s new life

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By Lipy Mary Rodrigues


Sumaya Aktar, 11, cannot recall her parents’ faces anymore. She lost them at an early stage in her life, one after another. Her father Mohamad, a driver, died in a road accident when she was a baby. At 5, Sumaya lost her mother, Selina. When Sumaya became an orphan, she became homeless. Nobody wanted to take the responsibility for her. Sumaya’s life became a floating ship without any destination.

The little girl was sent to a relative’s house to work as a maid servant. She does not remember that time in her life as happy. A short time later, one of her uncles learned about the street children drop-in-centre that is run by World Vision Bangladesh. He left Sumaya there.


Sumaya became a member of the Street Children Drop-in-Centre in Dhaka in 2006. Now she is part of a large family atmosphere led by a woman she refers to as her mother. At the centre, she lives with 12 younger girls whom she calls sisters.


After coming to the centre, Sumaya got the chance to go to school. Now in Grade 6, Sumaya has become a leader.


“Sumaya is senior to all daughters in my family. She is very responsible towards her own duties as well as responsible to the other sisters,” says Merina Ma, who runs the centre.


Sumaya is a star student, whom Merina describes as “brilliant.” She sings and she paints.


“My Sumaya is very gentle and benevolent, she never misbehaves with others. She is a little hero in my sweet family,” says Merina. “I do believe that she will be an established woman in future.”


“It is true that I cannot remember my real parents anymore,” says Sumaya. “My father died when I was only six months old and mother expired at my age of five. Sometimes I feel sad for that.”


But she also counts her blessings. “I am lucky enough that I have my Merina Ma here,” she says. “I have got my family back through World Vision. I know there are still children like me who have neither parents at home, living on the streets like a refugee.”


Her dream is to be highly educated and to work for the orphan street children who have lost their parents and home forever.


Sumaya, a light of hope, a little hero, has started her journey to remove all the darkness from her place on earth.


Photo by Lipy Mary Rodrigues.
©2011 World Vision Bangladesh
http://www.wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf/updates/26CC22FD10D09635882578C4004EE186?opendocument

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