Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Allal Uddin in Dhaka

It’s been a long story started back in the year 2001. Far away from Dhaka a poor old man named Allal Uddin came in Gawair with his family of three kids and wife. He thought its better to have tough life in Dhaka and have two meals a day rather than not having any in his home town. Allal talked with his brother, who himself is a rickshaw puller in Dhaka, and decided to come over to his place and pull rickshaw. He was unaware of the fact that it’s never easy to pull rickshaw in Dhaka city for a man like him. He had no idea of the roads and the name of the places eventually he couldn’t even raise the rent of the rickshaw he was pulling. He asked his brother for help to keep his family with him as he couldn’t pay the house rent. For next one and half months he stayed with his brother and worked hard to change his luck. Sadly he only managed to income 70 Tk. Per day which is about $1.

He managed to rent a house after one and half months for 400Tk. per month. The only source of their drinking and bathing water was a pond about five kilometers away. They had no toilet, gas or electricity in the house. After pulling rickshaw for one year he managed to income one hundred taka per day and continued till 2005. He cried while describing an event saying he found his kid begging for food in the market. None other than Allal Uddin knows how a father feels when he finds his child begging for food. One day a passenger asked him to admit his kid in The Dhaka Project School. Allal Uddin with his elder son Jahangir went to The Dhaka Project office and requested Sulaiman, former Project Manager, for admission. At that period of the year the school was having its half yearly exam and it was not possbile to admit new student. Allal Uddin inspite of such melancholy he continued his son’s education at home. He challenged that Jahangir is capable of coping with the school standard. Jewel, The Volunteer Manager, asked Jahangir that can he read fluently the English written on his t-shirt and Jahangir did it with ease. It surprised everybody in the office and Maria, The Founder, ordered immediately to admit Jahangir. From than Allal Uddin’s journey with The Dhaka Project started.

Because of his virtuousness and dedication The Dhaka Project approached him many times for various job but due to some limitation it was not possible for the project to pay him sufficiently enough. As a further approach to help him The Dhaka Project decided to pay him house rent, a bed, blanket, charger light, trunk and etc. Finally in July 2008 he was recruited as a salesman for the project’s grocery shop and the Food For Thought program with a salary of 2500 which eventually increased to 3000. He then joined The Dhaka project’s Adult Development class. After working in the shop for the whole day he used to attain classes in the evening and do home works at night. His dedication for learning English is startling. After scoring good marks in the exam he was promoted to the computer skill development program. He flourished over there as well.

He believes he can utilize whatever he learned from the adult development program very effectively. He learned a great deal about English communication and Mathematics. He is capable of writing English and operate computer to some extend. Allal Uddin is a man who needs no luck to step ahead in life. He is working hard to step ahead of luck. We wish him best of luck for his future.

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