<i>Helping out the hapless Sidr-hit kids</i>

Like many others, these children at Charkhali in Mirzaganj upazila of Patuakhali district lost their parents during the onslaught of cyclone Sidr that battered the southern region on November 15 in 2007.Photo: STAR

Teenage siblings Jamal, Nipa, Nilu and their minor brother Shakil lost parents during the onslaught of super cyclone Sidr that ravaged the coastal region including Patuakhali district on the night of November 15, 2007.
The next year Jamal, then a student of class eight, left his school and started working as driver of a hired motorcycle to run the family.
As his scanty income of Tk 100 to 150 per day was too scanty to run the family smoothly, Jamal was thinking of sending his sisters Nipa and Nilu to Dhaka to work in a garment factory.
At the time social welfare department brought Nipa and Nilu under a Unicef-funded special programme titled 'Amader Shishu' that offered them the opportunity to continue their study.
Now Nipa and Nilu are reading in classes nine and eight at Samabay High School of Charkhali village under Mirzaganj upazila.
Under the project that began on May 1 in 2008, social welfare department is giving Tk 1,500 per month to each of the beneficiaries to help continuation of their study.
The project will end on June 30 in 2012.
Like Nipa and Nilu, Shahid, Jamal, Shahnaj, Sonia, Sakib, Sagir, Sarwar,
Sultana -- all students of the same school, are getting financial benefits under the programme as they also lost father or mother or both during Sidr.
A total of 216 children including 159 girls and 57 boys in the upazila have been brought under the programme, said Mirzaganj Upazila Social Welfare Officer Ruhul Amin Bashir, also supervising officer of the programme.
"Without the help from the Unicef programme, I would have to work in a garment factory or elsewhere. Now I am continuing my study and dream of a good future. I want to be a primary teacher after completing my study," said Nipa Akther.
Sagir Hossain, 14, also a student of class nine in the same school, said, "My mother Rahima Begum was killed during Sidr. Now I am studying with the help of Amader Shishu programme. I want to be a government official in future."
"As per condition of the programme, the children must continue study and refrain from child marriage and engaging in any risky work. Beneficiaries of the programme should be kept with their father or mother or any near relative like brother or uncle," he said.
"With the money received under the programme, we are also arranging income generating activities like rearing of poultry or goats to help the beneficiaries become self sufficient," the upazila social welfare officer said.
Under the programme a total of 2078 children of seven upazilas -- Mirzaganj and Kalapara under Patuakhali district, Barguna Sadar, Pathorghata and Amtali under Barguna district, and Sharonkhola and Morrelganj upazilas under Bagherhat district, he said.
Ahsanul Islam Chowdhury, Barisal divisional child protection officer for Unicef, said the programme aims at providing safety and security to the children hapless and help them build better future.