Bringing a wind of change
Six years ago, Shyamoli Akhter used to be a playful seventh-grader -- who loved studying, playing, and roaming around the village with her head held high.
But her parents didn't approve. They started taking up frantic efforts to marry her off, jeopardising her childhood.
Shyamoli hails from the remote Dharmapur village in Kashipur union of Kurigram's Phulbari upazila, near the Indian border.
"It was a bleak winter morning of 2016 when I found out that my parents finalised my marriage without my consent. There was no way out," she said.
"Just a day before the marriage, a man came to my house as a blessing. He convinced my parents to dismiss the marriage after discussing child marriage's adverse impacts with them for hours," she added.
Shyamoli was eventually able to continue her education. At present, she studies at Kashipur Degree College.
The man behind saving Shyamoli from the grasp of child marriage is Habibur Rahman, a 25-year-old from Kashipur union, studying law at a university in Rangpur.
Habibur has single-handedly stopped around 300 child marriages in the last nine years, said locals.
Apart from this, his activism also includes counteracting school dropouts and awareness about smuggling.
He is now popularly known as a "Border Volunteer" in the locality.
Most residents of Dharmapur are poor. Because of that, most still don't give much importance to their children's education.
Habibur also distributes notebooks and pens among poor children, free of cost, to encourage them to continue their education.
"I was able to send over 700 dropout children back to school," he said.
Abdul Jabbar (55), a village resident, said, "Habibur often homeschools children free of cost."
"Student attendance was very low even five years ago but it's gradually increasing, thanks to Habibur's role," said Paresh Chandra Sarkar, headteacher of Kashiabari Govt Primary School.
As the village is along the border, there have been many incidents of smuggling in Dharmapur.
"Even children are being used in smuggling. Habibur has been working against smuggling for the last couple of years," added Abdul Jabbar.
Habibur devoted himself to such social and philanthropic activities in 2013, after passing his HSC examination.
"I noticed that people in my area are lagging due to a lack of education. I emphasised teaching children and then gradually shifted my focus to ending child marriage and smuggling," Habibur said.
Habibur also provides tutoring and spends his earnings mostly on conducting social activities.
At present, he has formed a "Youth Forum" at each of the union's nine wards to speed up social activities. Each committee comprises nine youths.
He sought the cooperation of administrations in this regard.
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