Bangladesh: Our day in Domar

From Bangladesh 2010

There is a special reason why we travelled so far to the northwest region of Bangladesh for a bedkit distribution in the village of Domar. Khaliq, one of the Rotarian coordinators was born in this region and lived there until he was a year and a half. His family taught him he has a responsibility: “You received the nutrients of the land and you need to repay this debt.” Thus we travelled with Khaliq to one of the poorest areas of Bangladesh to help the children.

We woke up to our first day of overcast with the occasional sprinkle of rain.

When we arrived at the village all 310 children who were to receive bedkits and their families were gathered under a very large tent. Khaliq’s uncle, Abbasi, had organized approximately forty-five minutes of entertainment while the six of us from SCAW set up the distribution flow and photography area. There was plenty of singing by the children. And just before the distribution started Kathy and I sang "O Canada" to the crowd. It’s highly unlikely we will be found at a stadium conducting opening ceremonies anytime soon.

From Bangladesh 2010

Part way through the distribution there was a pause while some of the children changed into their new clothes. Doug and Mike went into the crowd to have fun with the bubble-makers we brought with us. One benefit of today’s weather was that the bubbles lasted longer than usual. The children thoroughly enjoyed that impromptu entertainment.

When we set up our photography area we placed two rickshawvans in the background with both owners agreeing to leave their vehicles for the couple of hours required to take pictures. But half way through when our backs were turned one of the drivers snuck in and was taking his away. We were able to convince him with some taka-help ($) to leave it but found out at the end his child had received a bedkit early in the distribution and his wife and child were waiting for him to take them home! Oops, the challenges of communication!

From Bangladesh 2010

After the last bedkit was handed out we all agreed that today’s distribution ran smoothly and that Khaliq’s uncle, Abbasi, had done an excellent job of organizing today’s event and venue. The special part of today’s venue was it allowed the families and community to be very close to our team and the distribution site with, by the end, the crowd cheering and clapping the completion of every photo.

Steve Allen
for Bangladesh Team 2010

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