Raisa Wants to be A Doctor: Story of A Slum Kid

A 6-year-old innocent and intelligent girl Raisa Mahamuda attends class KG at Chalantika Slum Children Development Project (CSCDP) which is operated by ADRA in Bangladesh. She lives with her parents at Chalantika Slum in Dhaka.

Raisa’s parents migrated to the megacity Dhaka from their home district Borguna aiming to live a better life. Her father Iqbal Mahmud is a bus supervisor by profession and her mother Juria Akter is a housewife.

Raisa along with her parents are living in a slum that lacks all the basic amenities. Their house made of bamboo with a CI sheet roof. The rooms are very tiny in the slum. They can’t get the water for drinking properly that disrupts their daily life. They have to share their kitchen with other families. They are suffering a lot due to the lack of a garbage management system. People throw garbage everywhere in the Chalantika slum that causes odor. This is the real scenario of the Chalantika slum in Dhaka.

In Bangladesh and in all the under-develop countries, the scenario of the slum area is almost the same. Life is full of struggle in the slum. Children are mostly deprived of their basic education. They have to fight against the gruesome vulnerabilities constantly.

Raisa learns a lot of good things from the CSCDP center. She learns how to clean hands properly, health & hygiene for daily life, respecting the elders, etc. After school, she studies by herself and plays with her friends. She also helps her mother in household works like cooking, collecting water, and cleaning.

“I want to be a doctor in the future and help poor people who cannot get treatment due to financial crisis. I want to make my family financially stable. I want to live in a better place than the slum,” Raisa was unfolding her yearnings very confidently.

Raisa’s mentors from the CSCDP center love her. “Raisa is so talented. She can learn so quickly. ADRA will help her. I hope she will use her talent in the study and could be a good and educated person in the future,” said Raisa’s class teacher Ms. Sinthya.