Shuvo: Unwanted and unloved
Shuvo, today 24 years old, was not born to a happy family. Quarrels, fights and lack of love. When the fights escalated, parents got divorced. Mother worked hard in the textile factory in order to sustain them. And then the disaster came. One morning, Shuvo woke up next to his dead mother... Shuvo was 12, his sister Arnika 9 years old...
Family hell – what the hate engendered
Mother was high school educated and worked as a teacher. Father did not finish the primary school, but since he came from a rich family, he became a trader. He was buying and selling rice. They got married after a short relationship without the approval of their parents, which is not perceived well in Bangladesh. The wife got pregnant and gave a birth to son, named Shuvo, which means “good” in Bengali. But it was not good. Families of the couple hated each other and father-in-law did not accept the young mother. And so she was left alone with the baby in parent´s house.
After two years, the village council forced father-in-law to take mother with the baby to his house. She moved, got pregnant again and gave a birth to a girl called Arnika. However, it did not bring the happiness.
Father beated mother almost daily and older Shuvo often suffered some slash. When he was 6, father sent him to an orphanage. “I was feeling lonely, unwanted and unloved”, remembers Shuvo with bitterness. Fights between families, father and mother escalated till their divorce in 2011. Father dissociated from his children and died shortly.
Sacrificing mother´s love
Shuvo stayed in the orphanage, Arnika with her grandmother. Mother moved to Dhaka where she startedto work in a textile factory, in order to financially support her children. They saw each other once a year. It was very hard.
Mother´s uncle however, worked as guard at city school DAPS in Dhaka. He shared her story with the school headmaster. He helped the children to live with their mother again. After 4 years of separation they were together and Shuvo was able to attend the school. Their living was very simple, just a sheet cabin. “ We did not mind at all” tells Shuvo smiling. “We shared one bad with our mother. She was in the middle and me and Arnika on the sides“.
Both children studied the city school DAPS in Dhaka at first and later, 40 km distant boarding school BASC. The school fee was financed partly by a Czech donor and partly by mother, working hard in the textile factory. “Mother worked 7 days a week from 8 AM till 10 PM. Sometimes she stayed for the night shift as well. She was a quality checker. Her basic 8 hrs salary was 2.000 Taka a month. With the overtimes and night shifts she was able to earn 5.000 to 6.000 Taka. She was very hardworking”, proudly remembers Shuvo his mother
Mother passed away, mother is dead...
In this way, mother sacrificed for her children during 7 years. She drudged and drudged. But her heart was weak. When she could effort it, she took pills. In June 2007 children came to their mother to Dhaka for holidays. They were happy to be together again. However, in the morning of June 18, 2007, years of hard work and troubles took its toll.
„In the morning, when it was time to get up, I got up and realized, that mother did not woke. I was shaking her but she did not move. I ran for the headmaster of DAPS school. He called other people. They came to our place but they could not help her. Mother died. We were left with Arnika on our own”. This day was the darkest one in his life.
„She loved me. I still remember her face. When she died, I cried a lot. I prayed to God nights and days. And when I was down and I needed her love and felt lonely, I sang. That helped me. And still helps”.
Jilted love and kick out of school.jpg)
In order to help the children to put up with the loss of their mother, the board of teachers moved Shuvo and Arnika to a new environment. South of the country, to KMMS boarding school. After some years, Shuvo was kicked out of the school after a quarrel with his female classmate, whom he was blaming for a betrayal and attacked her. He felt again neglected, unwanted and unloved.
Hard work brings first success
At the end of 2011 Shuvo went from school and found a job in a roof tile factory in Dhaka. He did well. He was working 8,5 hrs a day and taking into account his 17 years of age, he earned good money – 7.500 Taka. He spent money on sweets, new clothing and also supported Arnika at KMMS school. But he wanted more. He wanted to become rich. He went illegally to India but did not find a job and so, after two week returned to Dhaka. He started to work again in the roof tile factory and suddenly luck came.
„The school headmaster in Dhaka, Milton Das, helped me again. He assisted with the return to KMMS school and registered me for exams. Thanks to his encouraging I passed in 2012 the SSC (Secondary School Certificate) exam. I continued afterwards with the studies on SAMS boarding school”. Shuvo lost only few months, successfully finish secondary school and decided to obtain a bachelor degree as well. He does not lack diligence and tenacity, he inherited those from his mother. But it is important to remember that his studies would not be possible without support of the Czech donor.
Nowadays, Shuvo studies at BASC boarding school, bachelor degree in business administration. Studies are expensive and so he earns some extra money as a night guard. “I work in the night from 10PM to 2 AM. Then I go to sleep. At 6 AM I wake up and go to school. I sleep 4 hrs a day only. From 8 AM we have lessons till 2 PM. From 3 PM I have to work for school. I work in the school canteen. Then, I have dinner, study and go to work as a night guard. I work on shifts. I work one month, than I have a month off”.
World of an orphan
Shuvo´s dream is to finish studies, get a job and help orphans. He knows himself very well how they feel and what needs – beside the material ones – orphans have. “Time to time parents of children came to the boarding school. They brought presents, gave them pocket money to buy some things and they were together. We, orphans, just watched. Nobody came to visit us, nobody talked to us, we did not receive anything“.
At this moment we understood, that the most important need of an orphan is acceptance and love, which could substitute the parent´s one. Since this meeting with Shuvo, on every occasion during our monitoring journey we come to greet and hug Shuvo at least. Even a small help from the Czech Republic could have a great impact on a life and destiny of child or young person in Bangladesh. It is about love that shares, helps, intervenes and overcomes all obstacles of tough life.
