The Zakat Foundation of America

Nov 16, 2009

It is a muggy, loud night on the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh as Taslima sits on a single thin blanket and reserves a spot under a streetlamp that will serve as a sleeping spot for her and her two children. She had arrived in the early evening to secure a spot as far away as possible from rat-infested piles of waste and, once settled, sent her two young boys to beg for change. Around her, men, women and children lie in makeshift beds and shelters while those who arrived too late are sent off to spend the night wondering or squatting in the doorway.
 With boney hands, Taslima wipes her tired, weatherworn face and whispers a prayer. She used to have a house, she tells us, a small, modest abode, but nevertheless, a space for herself and her four small children. Her voice trails off as she corrects herself: she used to have four young children.

Taslima sold her two youngest children because she could not afford to feed them. She sacrificed them because she found it impossible to feed any of her children, let alone herself. She needed money to survive; the petty cash she earned as a maid evaporated quickly. In her frantic desperation, Taslima was compelled to go against her maternal nature and sell her 9 month old daughter and one week old son, her only possessions that would bring enough money to sustain her remaining family, even if only for a few weeks.

Taslima’s gaze fixes on a group of young, dirty children hassling a rickshaw puller for change. Her life was shattered, she says, after her husband died. She was pregnant and had no surviving immediate family, her only relative being a distant uncle who was already pushed past his financial limit. Her children’s cries of hunger intensified as weeks went by and, when she was kicked out from her small home, Taslima became desperate. With a heavy heart and tear-filled eyes, she handed her daughter to a stranger, enabling the survival of her family for a month. When their situation again became pressing, she sold her newborn son for the equivalent of $74 (USD). Tears fall unchecked as Taslima describes the transactions as though she was “selling her heart and soul, never to regain them,” and as each day goes by, she fears she will forget the faces of her lost children.

Taslima’s story is not unique. The current food price crisis has deepened the hole of despair for poor widows and orphans. These conditions and situations are forcing mothers to make the most heart-wrenching of decisions: to sell their children for a small price--to sell them to complete strangers--without any hope of seeing them again. The impact of this decision is very severe. Many of these children are being exploited to work in dangerous labor field or are forced into child prostitution. UNICEF estimates that 40,000 children from Bangladesh are involved in commercial sex work in Pakistan alone (Data, Trafficking of Children). The situation is dire and many parents hope that, in selling their children, they will not only secure menial funds, but may also be providing their children with a better chance of survival and a more stable future. In most cases, women are approached by individuals who claim to be part of child welfare agencies. These shady individuals convince mothers that it is in the best interest of a child to be separated from his mother and leave her with a wad of cash and empty promises.

It is our duty as Muslims, it is our duty as humans, to make sure that destitute widows like Taslima are provided for so that they are not forced to sell their children. You can make a difference in the life of an orphan. With your sponsorship, children who have lost their fathers will be kept within their familial structure and supported. There are cases, however, when a child needs more stable grounds to thrive. Through your support we will reach out so that helpless mothers can keep their children in one of our orphanages, where their health and educational needs are met. This way, a mother will be present while her child is thriving. We see this as not an option but as an obligation.Children are the future, we cannot let our future darken.