Interview with the Village Director from Bogra, Bangladesh

In this interview from the SOS Children's Village Bogra, Bangladesh the Village Director and former SOS child tells what it is like to be part of the SOS family.

Chanarana Shaha grew up as an SOS child in the SOS Children's Village in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. She and her elder sister had lost both parents and had no relatives who could care for them. Knowing what it is like to live in an SOS family is useful knowledge in her current job. Chanarana Shaha is now the director of SOS Children's Village Bogra, one in five villages in Bangladesh. Here, she has been working for the last thirteen years.

My name is Chanarana Shaha, now I'm thirty-nine-years old. I am the village director of SOS Children's Village Bogra. Mostly, I am working with the children and SOS mothers. In 1971, the liberation period, we were three sisters, I was the youngest one. Our father died, and then there was nobody to look after us. Our relatives, like the maternal uncle, were there, but he was also poor, and kept us in government finance. When the SOS Children's Villages started in 1972, the authorities came to look for children who were parentless, and they found us, so in 1974, we were admitted to the SOS Children's Village Dhaka. I think I was really cheerful. Then, I was integrated into an SOS family, and that's why I think I was able to complete my education successfully.

As a former SOS child herself, Chanarana Shaha has a special inside knowledge of what the children need, a knowledge she uses as guidance in her job as village director.

When the mothers come to me and tell me their children are not listening to their words, I always say to them: 'Try to understand their need, and then try to fulfil, and give time to heal, and most important is, whenever a child falls sick, then go to her, take proper care, because when a child gets sick, if he or she sees that one person is giving proper care to them, another person is not coming to me, after he or she will be cured: 'of course, she loves me'. And I say to them, prepare the dishes, whatever your children like, it's not according to your wish. And when they want to tell you something, I think you're terribly busy. Actually, our SOS mothers are terribly busy. However busy you are: try to listen to them and give them whatever time you have, then they will feel that you are their mother.

Using experience as an SOS child

It is not only when dealing with the mothers that Chanarana Shaha draws upon her own childhood experience as an SOS child. All the children in the ten family houses in Bogra know about her background. According to Chanarana Shaha, the SOS mother is the most important figure in the life of an SOS child. But for the SOS mother, it can be difficult to attend to ten different children with ten different needs.

The children come from different places, and their behaviour is also different. One child acts in one way, another in another way, so it is difficult for the mothers, also. So it is like...children cannot quickly accept the mothers, mothers, also cannot accept them wholeheartedly at the beginning. So, affection is very important. When the children can understand their mothers love them so much, then they're listening to their mothers. At SOS Children's Villages, I think that the children's development, ninety percent of that, depends on the mothers.

It is the fortunate few of abandoned children who find their way to SOS Children's Villages, a point Chanarana Shaha wants children to understand. Here, she shares with us her thoughts on the overall situation of children in Bangladesh.

"You know, Bangladesh is a developing country, sixty percent of children and families are living in poverty, and there are so many underprivileged children. Some children are not getting proper food, many children are suffering from malnutrition. In the rural areas, people haven't got proper knowledge about nutrition, about education. Children are working in factories; that is very harmful. If you go to the villages, you can see that many children are working, but they have the right to get an education. So, I think in Bangladesh, most children are not in a good situation. In our social context, nobody can accept an unwed mother's child. So, those mothers like to lead their own lives, sometimes they leave their child in the hospital or ward, or so...they fled their child. That kind of child we also have. And most of the children, I can say sixty percent of children have their mother and father alive, but they are separated, they married again, but abandoned their children...and they are from poor communities."

SOS Children has been working in Bangladesh since 1973 and has five unique children's villages at Bogra, Chittagong, Khulna, Dhaka and Rajshahi. More than 700 children are cared for in loving family houses at these children's villages.

You can support children in Bangladesh at Bogra or at our other charity projects by sponsoring a child.