From pavement to a better life

Marketing campaigns have seeped so deep into our lives that we cannot think of anything without the material side. Take Mother's Day, for example. Posh hotels and restaurants are offering special deals on their extravagant menus. Beauty parlours are always ready with their mother-daughter offers exclusively for this day. In fact, the scopes to spend are monumentally increasing each year. Our mothers are proud of whatever we do for them. But there are mothers around us who are not even in a position to raise their children the way they want.

These mothers -- literally down on the pavements with no roof over their heads, exploited or simply on the wrong side of fate -- have faced the unimaginable and lived to tell the tale.

SAJIDA Foundation, a value-driven NGO, has taken a unique initiative to uphold their stories. This Mother's Day, SAJIDA is showcasing these stories as "Mothers in the Margins". The initiative narrates the struggles of six mothers who just want their children to live better lives than them. Momtaj, a 24-year old blind beggar with her three-year-old son, has found new vision in life through SAJIDA Foundation's Pavement Dweller Centres (PDC). It is the same for the likes of Shathi, who was abandoned by her husband, and Shefali, who was married off at an early age and eventually thrown on the streets by her abusive mother-in-law. The Foundation turns down no one, and Taniya, who was forced into the dark world of prostitution, is no exception; she found respite for her four-year-old boy through the programme.  Monowara and Sayeeda, too, share their stories and have been able to ensure better days for their children at the PDCs.

These stories are being shared on SAJIDA Foundation's Facebook page (facebook.com/sajidafoundation) today.

These stories are not the byproduct of two or three years of work. It all began in 2008, when the foundation, in partnership with Concern Worldwide and UNDP, started working with the disadvantaged group of urban “pavement dwellers” through "Amrao Manush" project.

The programme has now expanded its purview to also include those in squatter settlements and slums with support of Concern Worldwide, Irish Aid and a private donor organisation.

As a socio-economic group, pavement dwellers receive the least attention in the policies and programmes of the government, donor and development agencies. With almost no social capital and little social cohesion, pavement dwellers suffer from an extremely low social status and negative perception. SAJIDA Foundation's PDCs are the first step in ensuring a static, physical facility, which are strategically located to be accessible to pavement dwellers. The PDCs provide them access to essential services such as shelter, health services, washing, resting, cooking, bathing etc. Till date, SAJIDA has established seven PDCs in different locations like the MA Aziz stadium and Railway Station in Chittagong;  Karwan Bazar, Kamalapur, Sadarghat, Green Road, Mouchak and Maniknagar in Dhaka.

This Mother's Day, take time to go through the stories of these mothers for they too deserve to feel the same warmth of love and appreciation that is the right of every mother.

For more information, one can visit www.sajidafoundation.org