Dhaka, 17 June 2010
Dhaka's population in million people
Bangladesh’s capital grows at an enormous speed, especially as a consequence of the migration from rural areas that can be observed since the 1960s. The result is an increasingly overburdened infrastructure. Power breakdowns and water supply failures are frequent. At almost all times of the day, routes shorter than five kilometers mean a driving time of about 45 to 90 minutes because of the extreme traffic density. We experienced this again today. It had been our goal to have as many meetings as possible. At the end of the day, due to the traffic and the resulting delays, we had only managed to have two.
Meeting with architect Iqbal Habib
Our first meeting was with Iqbal Habib from the renowned Bangladeshi architecture firm VITTI Sthapati Brinda Ltd. and his colleagues. As senior architect, Mr Habib created the layout for the Children’s Village Haluaghat. In a long talk, he explained us his philosophy, answered our questions and shared his visions regarding sustainability and the fusion between modern architecture and traditional customary engineering. We also discussed the progress of the river works, which are financed by Germans. The first step is to fortify the river against the impending monsoon. The second step will be to build three dams to collect water that can be used at the children’s village. Finally, the reservoirs will be connected to sanitation, the bakery, farming facilities and the laundry.
Our second appointment today led us to psychologist Dr. Mehtab Khanam, professor at the University of Dhaka and, as a former employee of the human rights organization Ain O Shalish Kendro, experienced in dealing with the specific psychological problems of street children in Bangladesh. In a previous conversation with Ekmattra, we had agreed that it was high time that a professional child psychologist got involved in the project. The majority of the children currently living in Ekmattra‘s rehabilitation centre in Dhaka had a hard past. Some are the children of prostitutes and had to watch their mothers have sex with various men. Others were victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse. Yet others had addiction problems at a young age. The experiences of the Ekmattra children are both complex and individual. We want to help the children in our care process these experiences and guide them into a future in which they have made peace with their past and can determine their lives themselves. This requires time and, above all, expertise. We are convinced that the monitoring by an experienced child psychologist is essential to guarantee such expertise and, by this, the healthy development of the children. After some research, we came across Ms Khanam, who spontaneously agreed to meeting us and listened to our cause. We were accompanied to the meeting by Hiroki Watanabe, one of the founding chairpersons of Ekmattra. Hiroki gave a thorough report on the history and purpose of his organisation. Then we talked about our plans for the Children ‘s Village Haluaghat and explained why we regard professional psychological care as absolutely necessary. Ms Khanam was impressed by the present achievements and expressed her general interest in supporting our project in the long term. In the near future, further meetings will be held between Maqsuda, representatives of Ekmattra and Ms Khanam to discuss possible cooperation in more detail.
