Indomitable Helena

Her determination to get education overwhelms others.

She is appearing in the ongoing SSC examinations from Science Group at Ghaghra High School in Gafargaon upazila.

Hailing from an ultra-poor family, Helena Khatun, 14, was born with growth deficiency in her legs and right hand.

Although she cannot move normally like others, it does not stop her from continuing her study, said Md Mukbul Hossain, headmaster of the school.

Helena is a very bright student and she got GPA 4.85 in her Junior School Certificate examinations, he said.

She goes to her examination centre at Khairullah Government Girls' School in the upazila headquarters, some seven kilometres from her house in Ghaghra village, by a battery-run auto-rickshaw.

Initially the girl crawled to her school and the school authority managed a wheelchair for her when she was a student of Class III, said the headmaster.

"The authority provided education to Helena absolutely free. She also enjoyed free coaching and tuition," he said.

The headmaster hopes that she will achieve GPA 5 in the SSC examinations.

“My teachers and classmates are very supportive of me,” Helena said, adding that she wants to be a doctor.

“Seeing my determination to be educated, my mother always inspired me to continue my study,” said the girl.

“At the initial stage of schooling, my mother used to take me to school in her arms, some one kilometre from the house. However, a wheelchair was managed later but my mother never left me alone,” she said.

Helena's mother Fajila said, “As she was good in her study since primary level, I extended all my support that I could manage so far”.

“But I am now in utter despair for her future education as Helena, youngest among six children, lost her father, a sharecropper, over a year ago”, lamented Fajila.