Asha Moni has seen a lot even though she is just 12.

When she was six years old, her grandmother brought her to Dhaka from Dinajpur and made her work as a domestic help in a flat.

Asha worked there for a few weeks but could not continue as she was unable to bear the torture by her employers. She ran away and started to live on the streets, mainly in Karwan Bazar area.

The girl also decided not to go back to her grandmother. She did not know the whereabouts of her parents.

“I used to collect discarded vegetables at the market for food, but sometimes I had to beg to feed myself. I used to think that this would be my life,” she said with tears in her eyes.

But luck smiled on her. She was picked by a charity organisation -- Happy Home -- four years ago.

Launched in 2006, Happy Home works to rehabilitate underprivileged female children, especially those who live in vulnerable condition. Asha and 115 other girls are provided with basic needs -- food, shelter, education and healthcare -- there.

The charity had five small homes in the capital's Mohammadpur, Karwan Bazar, Lalbagh, Mugdha and Sutrapur areas. Recently, it has moved into a larger home in Mohammadpur and closed the others.

There were 150 girls in all the five homes. However, 35 of them have recently been reintegrated into their families, while the rest are staying at the Mohammadpur home.

A fifth-grader at Mohammadpur Government Primary School, Asha likes to dance and sing, and each year she participates in cultural programmes at the school and wins trophies. She aspires to become a doctor one day so that she can serve the poor.

“I have many dreams now, but a few years ago I couldn't even think of studying,” she said.

Asha also shared her fears and painful experience of living on the streets.

“I used to sleep in the slums along the railway lines or by the roadside alone. I used to cover myself with a polythene sheet. Those were fearful nights, and I often wondered when the sun would rise and I would meet my parents.”

“However, my life has changed in such a way that I never imagined. Now I can think of being self-dependent and building a better future,” she said.

Happy Home is a project of ActionAid Bangladesh, a UK-based NGO, and it is being run by Action for Social Development (ASD), a local non-government organisation.

Zinath Rehana, in-charge of Happy Home, said when Asha was brought there, she was very depressed and would not socialise with other children.

“But with time, she changed. She is quite smart,” she said.

Like Asha, all the girls in the home have the potential to become successful in life if they are given proper guidance, she added.

Rina Akther, another girl of the home, wants to be a banker. A student of Determined Model School in Mohammadpur, she even earns a few takas by working at a nearby beauty parlour during holidays.

Rina came to Dhaka from Bhola with her relatives but got lost at Sadarghat Launch Terminal.

“Happy Home has given me a new life as I lost hope while living in the launch terminal area for several months. Now I want to build my own future,” she said.

Rina will sit for the SSC examination this year.

The other girls at the home have a similar past, but the charity has been inspiring them to dream big.

Happy Home Project Coordinator Lutfun Nahar Kanta said, “We always motivate the girls so that they can forget the bitterness of their past and concentrate on their studies.”

“Apart from basic education, we give them vocational and skill development trainings so that they can get a job in future,” she said.

ActionAid Country Director Farah Kabir said Happy Home is an effort to give a better life to the underprivileged female children. Here they are safe and protected from sexual abuse or child marriage.

“We have established a model through Happy Home to rehabilitate such girls. The government, NGOs and other private organisations may use the model to support them,” she said.

Expressing her resolve to continue with the project, Farah said, “The girls will be able to grow up as good citizens with the help of everyone, especially the solvent people. It is our responsibility to give them a secure life.”