The Streets That Stole the Childhoods of 600,000: Dhaka and Cox’s Bazars Street Children

Of the estimated street children living in Bangladesh, 380,000 of those children are between the ages of 5 and 14. The streets of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka - is home to more than half of these kids. The RB team based in Bangladesh recently conducted interviews with the children in Kamlapur Station, Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar – they were asked about their life on the street. The interviews reveal the shocking and sad reality that these children live through.

Diary of an Intern: Nusrat Ahmed. Princeton. New Jersey. The Eid Craze.

“Isn’t it sad? How all these people can’t even expect to see a change when they really need it? Like, whatever situation they are in now, it’s like they’re in it forever,” I said to my mom as we were riding in a rickshaw.

“We don’t go to sleep with big dreams for literally a different tomorrow either,” she scoffed at my naivety.

“Yes, but at least you have the hope that one day things will probably change, since you’re working towards it, for it to actually happen in the future. These kids, these kids, don’t even have education. Every day is the same to them,” I argued back. And she fell silent.

Restless Beings Trustee humbled...here's why

There was an air of excitement, joy and bubbles of chitter chatter amongst the children. They beamed as they approached us. Some were tearful, others hugged in joy and some shyly walked off.

Diary of an Intern: Nusrat Ahmed. Princeton. New Jersey - The Art Workshop Day

I think art is one of the most powerful forms of self-expression and rediscovery. Whether it’s painting or coloring, the colors that are chosen, the designs that are made, and the lines that are formed, they all tell a story.

During my second field visit, I brought with me drawing pads, oil pastels, and paints for each of the children. The children all sat next to each other but it was quickly apparent that there was a rift between two of the women.

Diary of an Intern: Nusrat Ahmed. Princeton. New Jersey - First Encounter

My dad grew up in Karachi, Pakistan as a street kid. He had a mother and father but had to fend for himself. This was the situation for him, his five brothers, and his sister.

He would fool around with his friends, save up a few cents to buy some candy, which he would suck on from sunrise to sunset.

“We took care of each other,” he would say.

Hold-up on human rights

Bangladesh, upon the MDGs, has shown improvements in a number of areas. The 2012 report states that the country has already met some of the goals including a reduced poverty gap ratio, better gender parity at primary and secondary education and under-five mortality rate reduction.

So despite the constant political drama, the country can celebrate on the apparent direction. However what is still alarming is how a large majority of the physically and mentally impaired children remains out of the schooling system, access to safe water is still restricted especially for the very poor and mostly, the state/number of the homeless youth.

What would you like to do when you grow up?

The street children of Dhaka are surprisingly resilient and at the same time, big dreamers. There are many children that run away from home knowing that they will face hardship on the streets with only the hope that their dreams will come alive.

The Bangladesh Restless Beings team set out to ask what some of the street children of Dhaka aspire to be when they grew up; what their dreams are, who they hope to be, where they see themselves in the future if they had the choice.

Eid clothes in time for the 2013 Eid ul-Adha festivities!

A few months ago Restless Beings carried out the ‘My Ramadan Resolution’ campaign to give street children Eid gifts (consisting of a meal, new clothes and educational books) at the end of the spiritual month of Ramadan.

It brings us great joy to say we were able to raise enough to buy for all those who frequently use the Centre as well as many more, which was contributed towards the extra food distribution on the day!

The Restless Beings Bangladesh team as well as the children give their heartfelt thanks to the donors and supporters of this project.

Child Migration: How Can Bangladesh Learn From The Philippines?

Ask anyone and they will tell you; when they were young, all they wanted to do was make lots of money and chase their dreams when they grew up.

Everyone then dragged their heels through school, college and university and then finally when they landed that great job, they moved out.

Some of the children now living on the streets probably had the same dream – except their reasons to flock to the city are multidimensional. And their reasons to migrate are not often because they wanted to, but rather because they were forced to.

Street Children: Why Bother?

The overly congested city of Dhaka, has much in its background. But amongst the congestion, commotion and pollution are the floating population.

There are over 400,000 street children in Bangladesh with over a third of them settled in Dhaka. Living in dense slums, squatter settlements or on the pavement makes them vulnerable to a dangerous concoction of dilemmas - from malnutrition to sexual abuse, force participation to petty theft to substance abuse.

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Restless Beings Project:

Bangladesh street children

What is the problem?

Throughout Bangladesh there are a high number of children living on the streets. It has been found that within the capital Dhaka which has high poverty levels there are over 333,920 street children and many are being or have been exposed to one or more of the following:

Sexual trafficking
Organised crime
Drug and substance abuse
Homelessness and malnutrition

Once these children are victims of any of the above its is very difficult for them to get back on track and feel safe and they are often completely alone.

What have we done so far?

In 2008 after researching and working with local NGO’s for 9 months, Restless beings opened the Restless Beings Rehab Centre and Home in the bustling area of Mohammadpur, Dhaka.

The Restless Beings Team in Dhaka set out to work with at least 20 children at one time, and since it’s opening we have been able to offer hundreds of street children:

Accommodation
Education
Medical treatment and psychological counselling
Clothing
Life skills, allowing children to have a sense of ownership through various responsibilities

drastically changing their lives for the better, despite being seen to be beyond help by other organisations.

In March 2010 after having converted the roof of the centre into another teaching area and using the money raised from the Rooftop Fence Challenge we were able to erect the fence around the rooftop allowing for a much safer environment.

Restless Beings Village

February 2012 saw the launch of our 100Kids campaign, whereby we asked for 100 people to raise £100 in 100 days for 100 of the most marginalised street children, in hope that we would raise enough funds to start our latest expansion project- the Restless Beings Village!

After 100 days we had raised over £45,000 with the help of over 400 supporters! This then allowed us to start putting our expansion project into action. At the moment we are currently looking to buy land in Bangladesh to start building our Restless Beings Village which will consist of:

a school building with classrooms and offices
an accommodation building to house 100 children
a playground area in the middle of the village complex
and a fishery, where children can breed fish to sell to the local markets.

With your help we can give them all a safe home and the childhood they deserve.

Many more very exciting developments are in progress for this project and we just cant wait to tell you all about them! Follow our Twitter and Facebook accounts and be the first to hear!