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Life in a boarding houseDristi Mankhin, aged 10, returns home three times a year for vacation from St. Martha’s Girls Boarding & Orphanage where she is in grade four. She says, “In vacation I go to home and I am helping my grandmother in cleaning cooking pots and collecting water from neighbor’s tube-well”. Dristi is the only child of her parents and her father abandoned them when she was small. Since then, her mother Parul Mankhin is working in Dhaka and Dristi has been in the boarding house since grade 2. Her mother visits when she can.

Dristi’s grandmother inspired her to come and live at the boarding house. Dristi said, “Here I get pen, pencil, eraser, food and all kinds of support from the nuns.” She is grateful for getting all these supports and enjoys living here with friends.

In the boarding house they eat rice three times a day. The morning we met, Dristi had eaten rice with ‘chalkumra’ (gourd) curry. Her school goes for four hours in the afternoon with a half-hour break. In her class they study Bengali, English, Social Science, Mathematics and religion. Dristi says the easiest subject to study is Bengali.

Thanks to your support, this boarding school is a safe and caring place for Dristi and other girls to live and receive an education to help them flourish.

Program updateAt St. Martha’s Girls Boarding and Orphanage, local facilitators organized an HIV training in August for local youth. Through this HIV awareness training, youth learn about risk and how to protect themselves. Although Bangladesh has low rates of HIV, there is a high risk of infection in the area because it is near the border with India. Some young people cross the border illegally to find work in a coal mine.

Other newsChild protection has become an important issue as more people are becoming aware of it. There are regular reports of child torture, child abuse and child labour. In July there were a number of incidents, including the murder of a 13-year-old boy suspected of theft and the murder of a 12-year-old boy by his former employer.

Girls in the study room at St. Martha’s Boarding house.

A group of young women training to be HIV peer educators.

Fall 2015–BangladeshSisters for Sisters

Story and photos by: Phoebe Chiring Marak.