The real Saidpur

As I promised here is my blog from last week, which I started and because of technical difficulties couldn't be posted until now! enjoy...

What a week! In terms of time spent in the field this week was quite slow, but the emotional energy that we put into it was even greater than last. The girls and I have been discussing how exactly to write about all that has happened this week and I think we’ve all chosen to do so in our own way. For me some of the things we experienced and some of the bonds that we formed are better kept in our hearts and our heads, so forgive me if this week's blog is a bit lean.

We spent the majority of this week in the town of Saidpur at a drop in centre for women who work in the sex trade. It was a great opportunity to spend more than just a few hours in one place and to get to know some of the amazing Bangladeshi people on a more personal level. The drop in centre serves a number of different functions and provides services including a safe space for women to come and clean up and rest during the day, a centre for AIDS and STD knowledge and prevention, distribution of medication, and a number of different education programs. The majority of the women have not attended any form of school so when they come to the centre they take classes on literacy and other basic skills. If they choose, some of them are also trained in tailoring as a way to generate an alternative income. The problem with this is that the women are blacklisted from society and are unable to establish independent businesses as people in the community will always identify them as sex workers. The dream for many of them is to move far away and start fresh, unfortunately that is reality for very few.

There is also a school located inside the centre that is for the children of the women, who are often blacklisted as well and not allowed to go to school. The school has a class of approximately 12 kids who, after a year will then attend a local primary school. One of the major problems that these children have is that they must register at the school using their fathers’ name. Because a lot of them don’t know who their fathers are RDRS will take guardianship of the children and they can register under the RDRS name. It is heartbreaking to see these children, with so much energy and spunk, and know that they are at such a disadvantage from the start. I can’t even begin to think about the many young girls in the class and the odds that they will end up following in their mothers footsteps. The centre and the mothers alike are hopeful that with education this doesn’t have to be the case, but when looking at reality it is sometimes hard to see the bright side of things.

Now that the background is taken care of.. a few more particulars about our week!

We had such a blast over our four days at the centre. We spent a good chunk of our time with the children at the school and let me tell you! These kids have energy! We taught them games like the hokey pokey, and head and shoulders, knees and toes and made colourful alphabet and weather charts with drawing and colouring help from the kids. I forget how good kids are at drawing! So creative. We had some funds saved up to buy the school some much needed supplies, so we were able to find out what they needed and go shopping one morning to stock up. We decked out the classroom with bookcases, backpacks, games and decorations. It was awesome to see kids who truly appreciated what they were given. Some of my favourite times were playing in the small schoolyard with both the women and children, skipping rope, playing soccer and having the best/most awkward conversations in Bangla/English.

In contrast to our jovial play times in the courtyard our conversations with the women were a bit more on the serious side. That’s not to say that we didn’t have a blast with them. They are a special group of women that I will never forget, but our time with them was not all fun and games. We had an amazing opportunity to sit down for a few days and get to know them, get to know their lives, and get comfortable enough with them that we could ask some tough questions. It was amazing how we all bonded. Despite the language barrier we seemed to be able to speak to each other, even when our interpreter took a break. We had a great advantage this year in that we are an all female group and I honestly couldn’t have been more honoured to be here.

The rest of our time this week was spent in and around Rangpur. We took quite a few walks and rickshaw rides to the market and had fun wandering around the narrow corridors of the marketplace. We (well mostly Eileen) bartered for bangles and other things and we were able to hang out with Aslam’s daughter and have her do some mehendi (henna) for us. It was a great week filled with many highs and emotional peaks, definitely one to remember.