From the YAB · Part 2

What do you like about your community?

My doctoral project is taking place in a slum in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It’s hard to describe the atmosphere there: a space of around 400 square meters, occupied by over 15,000 people. Through numerous community visits, I was able to discover the community bazaar, tea shops, fruits stands, and important places like the community center.

In the hustle and bustle of the slum, we discovered a lively community in constant action. Colors and smells are omnipresent: lots of pink and orange, lots of smells of dry fish, a traditional dish. It’s a world that’s hard to imagine without having been there.

To help you imagine their world, I asked the Youth Advisory Board to describe their community to us.

Suvo

In our slum, there are ten different blocks (from 1 to 10). There are 20,000 families in our entire slum, some of them have their own house, some have 10, 15, 20, and some don’t even have one. People come from different places and rent here. There are small traders in our entire slum who do different business to support their family.

We have two fields in our area, but there is no field for our us to play. Earlier, our land was very big but it’s a government land, so they have taken over. We also have a community center in our slum where different NGOs come. They come up with different projects and help youth like us to learn different things and know unknown information.

There are so many things I love about my community. Two of them are my favorite places. 1) The Community Center: The reason why I like the community center is because there are people from different projects, there are different NGOs. They help us to know unknown information, financial help, physical help, all together they help us in many ways. We can learn a lot and I can teach those who don’t know. I can get together with other people. Everyone can have a conversation together. That’s why I like our community center. 2) The Playground: I like the playground a lot, because young people like us like to play. If they play sports, the body is good, the mind is good, bad thoughts don’t come. They can mix with everyone, they can learn something new, they can know something. If ever I feel bad, then I go play in the playground, I meet many friends and we talk a lot. Friends make me feel good, so I like the playground.

Taniya

In my community, I like the dense population. People from different districts are living here. I like the field at the end of our street & if something happens in our area, everyone comes running to help. Everyone in our community tries to protect us from slum fires or slum evictions. These are the things that I like.

Puspo

My favorite thing of my community is that there are many people from different countries, from different places far away, but actually we can mix with them and live together. One person’s danger is helped by another, one speaks for one another. These things are my favorite things we have here. We have someone to stand by us in times of trouble and I like standing by them.

Keya

In my community, we work together to brighten the future of everyone. This is my favorite, that for the future of my community, I think I can do something good through different projects. I can do this with my community. I love when people in the community sits together, and everyone expresses their thoughts and opinions. We can suggest what would be best for all of us in the community, and new things can be learned to brighten our lives. That’s why my community is so dear to me.

Tamanna

Our community is a slum area which is densely populated. My favorite thing in the community is that it has many beautiful places, but those beautiful places are being destroyed because of us. There are many NGOs working in our community, such as BRAC and ActionAID Bangladesh. As a result, people in our community are now aware of many issues, but they do not know about adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights. Our community has two schools, but no high school and no hospital. As our community becomes densely populated, space is limited, and rates of child marriage and early pregnancy are high.

Soborna

I was born in this community, so everything here is quite good for me. I like the afternoon at four o’clock the most. At that time, everyone finishes their work, and goes out on the streets. Children play games, adults talk in groups. During this time, such beautiful moments are spent in all areas of our community. I love this aspect of my community.

Yasin

This place is my favorite thing in my community because I pray in this mosque since childhood. I like this mosque because there are many trees and open spaces around this mosque, which I have not seen in any other mosque.

Boishakhi

I like every place in the community. The best thing I like is the afternoons in the community. In our street there is a van, I like that van very much because, in the afternoon, we can sit in the van & chat. For some time we can chill there. That’s why I like afternoons in the community very much.

Sumaiya

Honestly, since I was born and I grew up in my community, every place here is very familiar to me. Every place here is very dear to me, and every person here too. Because I grew up in my community from childhood, I like every place in my community very much.