Celebrating Universal Children’s Day

AMANI, a student of one of the most reputed private universities in Bangladesh has been selling flowers to the people passing the Bijoy shoroni circle. Every time the signal turned red, she approached the private cars and other vehicles wearing a t-shirt inscribing ‘JAAGO’ to sell flowers to the passengers. There were many young people on the roads doing the same thing. Some were selling popcorns, some flowers and some candy floss. Like Amani, many young students were on the roads of Dhaka on 18 November to remind people of their duties and obligations toward the children who are living a very miserable life.

Monju, a 12 year old boy, sells popcorn at Gulshan-2 circle. At this very tender stage of his life, instead of going to school, he has to support his family – his mother and 5-year-old sister. Everyday, he wakes up at 7 a.m. and spends his whole day on the roads selling popcorn to the people on transports. But 18 November is very different for him than any other day. He did not have to go selling popcorn. Rather, he is enjoying his time in Wonderland Amusement Park along with some of the children who sells flowers, candyfloss, candies and many other items on the streets. It is more like a dream come true for them. They do not have to rush towards cars or any vehicles to sell their products. These are the stories of Amani and Monju and there are many other similar stories that took place on 18 November. On that day, around 500 underprivileged rejoiced happiness across the city. This year, Jaago Foundation celebrated Universal Children’s Day with the underprivileged street children who face harsh reality in every single step of their life.

The day started with distributing breakfast among 500 children, which was not an easy job for the volunteers. But they managed to handle every thing properly. The kids were enjoying every bit of their time in the Wonderland. After the breakfast, they started roaming around and exploring the fascinating rides. The Wonderland authority privileged the kids by giving them a chance to ride all the rides as many times as they want for three hours. The joy knew no bounds for the kids. It seemed that they had the best three hours of their life as they were enjoying to the fullest. Lipi, one of the kids, could not even express how happy she was. She was riding only the bumping car over and over again.

Celebrating Universal Children’s Day

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