Rain Water doesn’t wet Urmie’s books, dresses and bed

Rina Begum is a member of the SDS MF group “Karnofuly Mohila Samiti” since 16 years. She works as a housewife. Her husband (Ali Azam Sikdar) is a rickshaw puller. However, he doesn’t own the rickshaw but rents it on a daily basis. He pulls the rickshaw 7 days a week and takes off only when he is sick. His average income is 500 taka/day. Rina Begum feels proud to be a samiti-member since such a long time and the group supported her as a strong candidate to get help in constructing a new house. Rina Begum has one daughter and two sons. Urme is the 13 year old daughter of Rina Begum. She reads in class seven.

Urme’s dream : Urme is fond of studying. She wants to study as long as possible. She doesn’t want an early marriage like many other village girls. Her aim in life is to be a Govt. employee.

Urme’s displeasure : Urme likes it very much when guests and relatives visit her house. But if the guests stay overnight, she feels displeasure because their house is too small, so she can’t read or sleep well. Due to lack of sleep she doesn’t get enough energy to go to school the next day. She also feels shy to invite her school friends to her house because the house is poor.

Urme’s fear : Urme fears the seasonal weather. In summer, she fears the storms and cyclones as they can easily destroy their house. During storms she prays to God to safe their house. In the rainy season, the floods stand in their yard and the water comes inside their house. As the plinth of the house is made off mud, their old house with bamboo pillars can collapses any time. Their toilet is quite some away from their house and it is old with the bamboo fencing already rotten. At night she is afraid to go to the toilet in the dark.

Urme was laughing : “By being a Govt. employee, you will get well educated, employed and good family boy to marry”. Urme started laughing and replied “Our house looks so poor that good family employed boy will not marry me”.

Urme’s Plan :In the new house, she will ask her father to buy a table with drawer and a chair. She will keep it one side of the room and she will study in this table. Top of the table she will keep her new school bag (if possible to buy) and in drawer she will keep pen, pencil, eraser and hair rubber band.