A gesture of kindness

Every morning before he sets out for work, rickshaw-puller Mohammad Ismail, 60, takes a quick glance at the sky and wonders if rain is in forecast.

“No matter if the sun shines or it rains cats and dogs, I have to go to work to feed my family,” said Ismail, the sole earner in his family of five.

A resident of a slum near Jahangirnagar University in Savar, Ismail works in the campus area.

“On days when it rains a lot, I am forced to sit idle and my family has no choice but to starve,” he said.

On the cloudy Wednesday morning, when Ismail went to work, he was quite surprised when a group of first year students of the university approached him and gave him a raincoat.

Another rickshaw-puller Mithun Barman, 28, has been on the campus for over three years. After receiving a raincoat like Ismail, Mithun was overwhelmed with emotions.

“From now on, we will no longer have to sit idle on rainy days,” he said.

One hundred thirty-five rickshaw-pullers were given raincoats on Wednesday by students of the 47th Batch.

The initiative started last year when a group of students opened a Facebook group called “Raincoat” with an aim to help underprivileged people.

“Thirty-seven members of our group raised funds from students and teachers of different departments to buy these raincoats,” said Arifuzzaman Uzzal, a first year student of marketing department and one of the organisers of the campaign.

“It's heart-breaking to watch them pull rickshaws amid incessant downpour, and from there we got the idea to do something to help them,” said another student Mahmudul Hasan.

“We look forward to extending our hand to help them in future,” he added.