Desk Report
As we have fought our way through this pandemic and entered into a season when the temperature is dropping down in our country, helping the less privileged with warm clothes is not only a noble task but also significant. While many of us are digging into our winter wardrobes and stocking up on warm clothes, sadly, several communities in our country cannot afford this minimum facility. The Hijra community of Bangladesh is one of them. Not only are they constantly bullied regardless of the season, but are also marginalised and deprived of basic human rights due to the stigma surrounding them.
Various social youth organisations and NGOs have united on the common ground of providing relief materials to the needy and desolate, but the minority and vulnerable groups and communities have been left out of the discussion. The extensive discriminatory barrier becomes evident when relief materials are not adequately provided to Hijra people.
With that in mind, TransEnd, an organisation that aims to help the underrepresented and marginalised Hijra community of this country, has put together a project to help them by providing with warm clothes. The project “উষ্ণতার খোঁজে” (In search for warmth) is providing the Hijra community with sufficient winter relief. It is because, if we think about the most discriminated communities of our country, Hijra people will be at the very top.
To contribute to minimise this humanitarian crisis of Hijra communities of North Bengal and other area during winter, six student-run non profit organisations: Solace, Ekhoni, Unstitched Women’s Tapestry, The Dhaka Apologue, Shree, and ProjectDebi — are collaborating with TransEnd. They are collecting monetary and clothing donations through specific channels from both local and foreign donors.
Before discussing the event, here’s a small talk about the organisation TransEnd, in case this is the first time the reader is hearing of them. TransEnd is a non-profit organisation with an aim to help 50,000 transgender people from Bangladesh by 2023. They look forward to making a difference in the country by eliminating the stigmas associated with trans people and queer community. With this initiative, their goal is to promote great opportunities for those in need, and thus making this country stronger and prosperous.
Discrimination in any form can both cause poverty and be a hurdle in alleviating poverty. Even though removing it from its root from our precious country is an intense and lengthy process, we can definitely start by supporting such noble-minded initiatives.
So far, this project has been able to distribute clothes to more than 500 Hijra people in the areas of Lalmonirhat, Rajbari, Kurigram, Bashabo, Mugda, Savar, Kamalapur, Rajshahi, Mithapukur, and Pirganj. This project intends to gather Tk 3 lakh for this virtuous cause to help the Hijra community. However, it fell just short of the its targeted budget.
To help them reach their target of providing warm clothes to at least 1000 Hijra people, you can donate any amount of money to any of the following channel:
BKash: +8801856899248, +8801951695612
PayPal: paypal.me/adnanfakir