Guest contribution by Farhana Hossain, Ekmattra

In the present crowd of hundreds, maybe thousands of restaurants and fast-food corners of Dhaka city, a new name has added its own grace and individuality – Roshayon. On the first day of April 2011 the restaurant with a twist of exciting fusion-food just had its inauguration at Mirpur. The location is easy, near Sony cinema hall at Mirpur 1 main road. The food, the interior and the total ambiance is as unique and interesting as the name Roshayon. It means “chemistry” that speaks about so many things together.

The décor is Bangladeshi folk-toned, cozy and welcoming yet very classy. The place is not huge but the vision behind Roshayon is a big one! It’s the dream that became true to the founding members of Ekmattra Society. Years ago, when Ekmattra was formed, the plan to establish such a venture was implanted in the minds of the founders that has finally turned into reality after all these year’s hard work. Their dream was to establish a profitable business unit from where Ekmattra could enjoy a constant and adequate financial feed for its operations. Now it’s just a matter of time that the restaurant hits breakeven and starts rolling the finances through operational implementation. The continuous income of Roshayon will assure a better future for the Ekmattra children. They will also enjoy independence and dignity while securing their future and at the same time the customers of Roshayon will be enjoying good food while serving the society. The customers will also get a platform to meet likeminded people and of course a place to hangout with regular friends and family members.

The main attraction of Roshayon is the food! The items range from new ones to some familiar dishes that simply amuse the taste buds. The price is another strength feature of Roshayon to mention which is remarkable in this city of crazy prices! The taste of the food according to price is hard to compare with any other places of such kind. Roshayon offers fast foods, some soups, Indian, Bangladeshi and some ethnic cuisine along with a variety of mind blowing customized Japanese items like ‘Yakitori’ and ‘Crocket!’ Tastes of these Japanese items are worth every effort of traffic and time spent. As Roshayon serves a noble cause, the outcome is rewarding physically and mentally at the same time.

Roshayon’s goal, as a business unit, is to generate optimum profit to support the noble cause of Ekmattra. Roshayon, as a social entity, yearns to provide a platform to share ideas of the people who want to find a purpose of life and eventually a platform to initiate social awakening.

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.

Pupils at a class for street children held by Ekmattra

Our partner organization Ekmattra operates a school for street children at a community house in Mirpur in the north-west of Dhaka, providing an education to those children living on the street or in slums, who wouldn’t have had this opportunity otherwise. These children are taught three times a week by experienced volunteer teachers in fundamental cultural techniques – reading, writing and basic math. These classes are supplemented with courses in common knowledge, sexual education and manners. We had the opportunity to visit a class consisting of ten students in Mirpur today with our local volunteer Saifur Rahman and his wife Senjuti accompanying us. After a new letter of the Bengali alphabet was introduced to the students, they took up a traditional dance and sang Bangladeshi songs for us. After some encouragement from the kids we gave them a rendition of the German children’s song “Alle meine Entchen”. Our Bangladeshi friends were clearly amused by this and were reluctant to let us leave by the end of the lesson. We left deeply moved by the unbroken joy and overwhelming energy of these children who have struggled to survive since the day they were born.

Ekmattra teacher, Cathleen, Marc, Khukie, Senjuti & Saifur

The teacher explained to us that the children who take part regularly in Ekmattra‘s classes are directed through a sophisticated program, at the end of which a talk is held with the child and its parents (if existent) to consider an admission to the organization’s rehabilitation center.

Dinner at Ekmattra's office

For the parents, in particular the mothers, of these children, Ekmattra is currently developing an advanced education program, which shall provide explanations on rights and development possibilities. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a talk on this subject between some Ekmattra employees and mothers after visiting the class. This enabled us to get first-hand information about living conditions and problems of the parents.

Later that night we concluded our day in Mirpur by having dinner with the Ekmattra employees at their office and discussed our future collaboration.

Dhaka, 11 June 2010

Since 2004, Ekmattra has been running a rehabilitation centre for Dhaka’s street children in the city’s Northwestern district of Mirpur. On weekdays, the children attend the local school together with other children from the area. In addition to a householder who provides around-the-clock care for the children, there is a cook and two other employees and contact persons for the children. The shared meals, excursions and the solving of minor conflicts convey visitors an intimate and friendly atmosphere.

Shumon & Cathleen

It was weekend, so we arrived at Ekmattras rehabilitation center surrounded by 24 children. After each child introduced him/herself in English, stating his/her name, age, hobbies and dream job, the group was divided into two. Each participant in group A was supposed to choose a place that has a special meaning for him/her, take pictures of it and say a few sentences about it. Meanwhile, with great enthusiasm, the participants in Group B were drawing pictures for the donors from Germany. In a second round, the groups swapped.

Rainer, Maqsuda & Cathleen on a walk with the Ekmattra kids

The kids’ highlight of the day was obviously the opening of the large gifts suitcase. Each child could choose a stuffed animal. The joy in their eyes was unmistakable. The Haribo gold bears were also very popular. After sharing lunch, we signed the center’s guest book.

In the evening, we had to say goodbye to the children. We assured them that we would come back and, as happy as the encounter had been, it was with heavy hearts that we left the children at the centre.