Peter Nena
We are all born innocent. We are born with young, feeble limbs waiting to grow strong and serve humanity, and an almost empty brain waiting to learn from the world. We never ever ask to be born. We never ever ask to be brought here. But once you are born, you begin experiencing the world as it is. Depending on where you are born, and of whom, your first taste of the world can be varied from too lovely to too hostile, from too sweet to too bitter.
If you are the child of a sex worker, who herself is subjected to repeated abuse and contempt, your chances of ever having a full positive life begin in the negatives and linger there for days on end.
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, one tender-hearted, compassionate woman cares for the children of sex workers.
Hazera Begum was born in an abusive family. When she gathered the courage to run away to her aunt, who lived in a different part of the city, she got lost and ended up in the streets. Hungry, unwashed, foraging for food and work, she later met a woman who sold her to a brothel. She was eleven years old.
It was in that hell of rape and torture and suicide and never-ending series of abortions that she learned of the inimical fate of the children of sex workers.
“Actually, I saw that the children of sex workers often end up in the streets. No one wanted them. They were suffering very pathetically.”
The children face too much discrimination even in school. Normal parents do not want their children mixing with the children of sex workers.
Hazera says that it is the little girls she worried about the most. She didn’t want them going through what she herself had gone through. Abandoned girls are more prone to being sold away for sex work.
When she could, she quit the brothel and set up a facility for the children. She now takes care of as many as 35 of them. Sex workers in the city know her and they bring her their rejected children.
“She knows from her own traumatic personal experience that the children of sex workers can have a rough time. They’re often shunned, end up on the streets or in the same trade as their mothers. So Hazera looks after as many as she can – 35 at the current count – all living in her home. For some, it’s the only chance they’ll have to get fed, clothed and educated.”
She loves the children as her own.
“Love has no limits. They love me and I love them. And they call me mum. Likewise, I treat them as my own children. I enjoy and love it so much.”
Hazera’s story is found here.
Hazera Begum. Photo Courtesy of BBC.
This is the twelfth celebration of the WE ARE THE WORLD BLOGFEST #WATWB which is carried out every last Friday of the month, and which aims to spread love and positiveness in this vulnerable world. A celebration of heroes who can still restore our faith in humanity, especially in this period when our world seems to be full of endless series of horrible happenings.
Our generous co-hosts for this month are: Shilpa Garg, Eric Lahti, Belinda McGrath Witzenhausen, Sylvia McGrath, and Sylvia Stein.
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~~~GUIDELINES~~~
- Keep your post to below 500 words, as much as possible.
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