News

The holy month of Ramadan started a week ago in Bangladesh which witnesses, for one month, devout Muslims observing, dawn-to-dusk, a fast for self-purification and divine blessings. The scenery of Ramadan in Sreepur Village is distinguished. The mothers and children are dedicated to their fasting and while the mothers training hour has changed a little due to prayer, everyone still attends all the regular activities.

Living in a remote village in Bangladesh’s Sunamgaj District, Runu Bala struggled to feed her three children. Without land and living near to Tanguar Haor - a large wetland area in North-Eastern Bangladesh that gets flooded for five to six months of the year - it was hard for Runu to grow vegetables or other crops. Vegetables are an essential source of nutrition for a sound and healthy body, but in Bangladesh, two out of every three children born are underweight due to malnutrition.

In Bangladesh, many mothers, like Runu, don't have enough land to cultivate vegetables conventionally. Sack gardening does not require much space and a variety of vegetables can be grown according to need and taste. The bags are also easy to move, which is important for families living on 'char' lands (River Island) and riverbanks, who are often forced to move as their villages become flooded. The large majority of our mothers are from the Char area.

Today is International Women's Day and The Sreepur Village would like to share with you a story of hope and empowerment:

After the death of her husband, Khadija and her three children were evicted from their home by her husband’s elder brother. Abandoned and alone the only option for Khadija and her children was to move to Dhaka. 

It was whilst living in a park that Khadija’s children met an organisation that offered to refer them all to The Sreepur Village (Shishu Polli Plus), the only residential mother and child project in Bangladesh. Without The Sreepur Village Khadija would have had to place her children in institutional care and spend the rest of her life alone on the streets of Dhaka.

"After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world." Philip Pullman

The Sreepur Village, a UK-based charity, provides a safe haven for over 400 children and 150 mothers in rural Bangladesh. Living alone in fear and not knowing where the next meal is coming from is the start of many a story, and one that all of our beneficiaries have been able to share.

Everyday on the grounds of the CMC (Child and Mother Care) our Baby-House's children have their lunch under the big water tank. 

“Please give us something for our children”, pleaded Yasmin, 25 and Farida, 15, in their broken voices - they couldn’t say any more than this.

Later, Farida narrated her horrific experience. Her father was slaughtered and her husband was gunned down by the Myanmar army right in front of her face. The same thing happened to Yasmin’s family. Both women, along with their children, fled from the spot with the sole aim to cross the border and reach a safer place.

At the end of summer, in August, the news headlines were heavily featured with The Rohingya crisis which has seen at least 500,00 Rohingya flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Although the crisis has intensified in recent months, the targeted, sometimes violent, discrimination of this minority group is anything but new.

With many babies and children without families and food, this week The Sreepur Village has travelled down to the South with supplies, which may seem a small gesture in such a grand scale crisis, but as a humanitarian charity we know that every little bit counts and will do anything if it means helping to save lives, and provide comfort, food, warmth and shelter to those in need.