SUMAIYA AKTER, a girl of eight years old, comes from a very poor family. She is the younger sister of Ruma, a student of PHALS-BANI Academy. Her father Abdul Hamid sells Betels at sea-beach. Her mother is a housewife. Sumaiya`s father has to maintain a large family of nine members. Sumaya`s childhood was full of sorrows and sufferings. She used to collect wood from hills and forest in her early childhood. Then in the afternoon she helped her father in his work. Sometimes she had to help in her mother household works. There was scarcity of drinking water in her locality. So Sumaiya had to collect water from tub-well which is far from her house. . PHALS-BANI Academy got her information from Sumaya`s elder sister Ruma who was already in PHALS_BANI Academy shelter home. Then a representative of shelter home visited her home and offered Sumaiya`s mother the responsibility of Sumaiya`s study, accommodation and other needs. Sumaiya became very glad at this. She started to dream of going school. However, Sumaiya was taken to shelter home of PHALS-BANI Academy in February
2021. Then she got admitted to cox`s Bazar International school in class one. Before coming to PHALS-BANI Academy she could not red and write. But after coming here she has improved a lot. She has done a good result in school. She has also got a gold medal in National Taekwondo Competition held in Dhaka recently.
Sumaiya Says- “In PHALS-Bani Academy, I can eat well, play and spend good time with othets. I`m learning a lot of new things every day. I`m very happy to get all the facilities. I want to be an ideal teacher in future. I`m grateful for everything to BANI STREET and PHALS.”
JOSNA AKTER ANIKA (17) was the youngest child of a Tailor Mr. Amir Hossain. Her mother is a housewife. Josna has 6 brothers and sisters. With a poor income, her father cannot maintain the family. When Josna was in class two, her study was about to end due to financial crisis. The condition of all her siblings was the same. When she sees that her family can’t bear her educational expenses, she decides to sell oyster ornaments on the sea-beach. She started to go to sea-beach every day after school to sell oyster ornaments. She used to return home at 10 pm which is unsafe for a girl. In this way, she got a very little time for study. After three years, her father left his family and married another woman. Then he stopped spending money for Josna’s family. Josna’s life became even more uncertain. She started to sell oyster ornaments on the sandy beach under hot sun all day long. In the midst of intolerable sufferings, she is not a girl to give up. Somehow BANI STREET representative knew about Josna and visited her home. BANI STREET offered Josna’s mother the responsibility of Josna’s education. Josna became very happy. She came to BANI STREET and was admitted to class seven in Cox’s Bazar International School in 2016. She became very attentive to her studies and also in co-curricular activities. Thus, her days were very well. She stood first in class eight. She also made a good result in JSC exam. Recently she has secured GPA-5 from Science group in SSC exam. She has also got a silver and a bronze medal in National Taekwondo Competition held in Dhaka recently. She can speak & write English well.
She Says- “I’m grateful to Allah for getting a chance to continue my study by the help of BANI STREET. I want to be a Pilot in future. I want to travel more and more countries. I pray for the BANI STREET and PHALS team.