Manaching: Beauty of Character Grown in Misery
How evolves the life of a person who suffered a vertebrae injury and was partly or completely paralysed? That depends on him or her. Wheelchair, limitations, depressions and loss of meaning of life need not be the terminal station. Twenty years old Manaching helps people like that to set a new hope in the situation which is impossible to change. The young woman is a brilliant student of the third year of the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed. She herself struggles with problems in a “school of suffering”. Maybe that is also one of the reasons why she has very good rapport with her patients.
An Evergreen from Bangladesh
The story of the Manaching´s family is one of the sad evergreens, which are repeated daily in Bangladesh. Death of her father, loss of economic background, poverty. Her father died when she went to the third year of elementary school. He was a farmer. Then the mother tried to bring up Manaching and her brother herself. But it was an impossible task after she sustained a head injury. She suffered sudden headaches and she wasn´t able to handle long working hours more. This time, her richer brother became a new hope for the family. Uncle of Manaching was helping them. Along with the neighbours, he took care of the mother and supported the children in their studies. Nevertheless, as the number of the members of his own family gradually grew, his financial resources were exhausted.
Thanks to the BanglaKids program, Manaching gained a patron from the Czech Republic and she could continue her studies at the boarding school AHTSS and MAS. The teachers became her substitute family. “They loved me as if I were their own,” she says. “When I was preparing for my A levels, they were helping me with the preparation. That was their merit that I passed all the exams and could go on studying.” Despite of all the inconveniences, Manaching started studies at higher school of rehabilitation in 2015.
Her school life
“I am a specialist in rehabilitation and care for the patients with a spinal injury. That is an injury of spinal cord and vertebral column. I attend to patients of all ages. They can´t walk, move with hends, they are paralysed. We help them to find a way back into the life,“ Manaching introduces her role.
It´s a demanding and beautiful work. We exercise with them daily. We give them a bath and help them with the food. A person after accident can´t even eat without help. It usually takes four months before the patients are able to move on the wheelchair without an assistance. Then, when their condition improves, The Department of Social Care decides about further steps. When the patients are children until eleven years of age, we send them to two provincial establishments where they learn how to handle the movement back home and another useful things. We talk with them a lot. A consultant psychologist is a member of our team. He speaks with them about the situations which can come up. The people with such a complicated injury very often suffer from severe psychical problems.
The practice in the Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paralysed is an inseparable part of her studies. Manaching is usually fully occupied from seven o´clock in the morning to eight in the evening. Four to five hours of self-study at the dormitory follow. The students have free Fridays. “During the week, we have three days of lessons in the school and three days of the practice at the clinic. Three times a week we have morning and evening shifts”.
What to do when I have nothing to eat? We handle that together!
Nevertheless, the big study pressure isn´t the only difficulty Manaching must face. There are also her financial obligations. The monthly study expenses oscillate between 5.000 and 6.000 Taka. That is nearly the equivalent of the donation from a Czech patron. But the food is excluded. She must gather the rest of the money for her expenses herself. That is not easy. “I tried to give extra classes to children and weaker students. But basically, I have no time for that and I have to make a request for leaving the campus every time I want to. The boys have it easier. They live outside the campus, don´t need to make the requests and it is easier for them to earn some extra money”.
In that way, Manaching have to rely on the occasional help from her uncle and earnings during the summer vacations. Once a year she makes a 24 hours long journey to her village to visit her mother and brother. During the time of the visit, she works along with them on the field. That is where she earns some money. Unfortunately, not enough. Her debt in the school increases. Even if she finishes successfully her studies she won´t obtain the diploma until the debt is paid back. The school offers the possibility of working the debt back but that usually takes the students three or four years. The lack of resources can mean really critical consequences for them.
“Sometimes I have no food. I try not to pay attention to it. I prefer going to study or to work. However, this year I have once fainted due to hunger. My mummy is ill, so I decided not to tell her about that. Sometimes my roommates help me and share their food with me. They buy food for one or two persons and then they share it with four or five friends. So we all eat. This is not easy but we handle that together”.
The beauty of her character gives her hope for the future
Manaching faces the future with hope. There is one year of studies left. Then, if she manages to pay back her debt, she will get the certificate (to prove the completion of her studies at the higher school of rehabilitation). After that she would like to continue her studies at the bachelor's level. That would take another two years. But there is also a “qualification” which she gradually gains without realising it.
When we were talking with Manaching, there was something exceptional in her. Humility, quietness and cheery hope, awareness of the goal, patience and invincibility formed the embellishment of the nature of this strong girl. She simply couldn´t hide the beauty of her character. It looks that the difficult life conditions she faces are preparing her for her job the best possible way. They admirably form her character so that she can very well understand and help to the people for whom is the misery their everyday reality. And the patients? They couldn´t be more grateful.
Thank you that through BanglaKids program you are helping children and students to be able to help other people in the future.
