Mita's story

I have had the pleasure of meeting Mita several times on both of my trips to Birahimpur. Mita is a 35 year old happy go lucky type of lady – yet little do we know what a smile can hide. Mita spoke with me using various signs and whispers in a language that I do not understand, no more than she understands mine, yet we seem to have some understanding of each other. As I realise that I need to know more I ask my translator to help. When he did, we had a conversation with her about her main request which was “You come see my house”.

I had gathered from her previous efforts that this is what she wanted me to do. We arranged a time to go with her. On the day we walked some of the way, but as it was going to take too long so we decided to take an auto. We arrived at what looked like a nice compound with lots of people watching with interest. Mita took her key from a pouch that she wears under her sari. As we stood while she turned the key in her front door, a door that seemed to be in a very solid looking wall, we had no idea what was to be revealed. The door that we entered was just that, a front door in that solid wall – inside there was just rubble and a blue, blue sky with a few bags storing her goods and shackles piled up beside the wall, these bags protected by more plastic bags hanging as if to create a wall,  her house was not even a shell. Her furniture, what little she had, rotted, rusted and ruined from exposure to the elements. We stood in the middle of her space and listened to her story. As Ramjan gently translated her words to me, Mita cried as she spoke, people would walk in uninvited, so we asked them to leave. She did not want to be witnessed pouring her heart out in front of the whole village. (This we knew as we had checked with her). Her sadness was overwhelming. I felt hot tears running down my face. I looked at Ramjan and could see that he too was very close to tears, as he had to retell her story to me.

We listened to Mita tell us that her husband had divorced her some years ago after their daughter was born, their third child. Her first two children were boys, their first son having died after twenty three days and the second after twenty one days. 

Her daughter is now seventeen years old and lives with an aunt in another village. Mita lived in her father’s house until it became uninhabitable. Mita now lives/sleeps in the house where she has, for the past five years but is now separated from her daughter. She has stayed on a low wage on the promise of help with her house repairs, a promise never fulfilled.

She is a skilled woman who can do many jobs, cooking, cleaning, laundry and basket weaving. She says that her brothers did not help her and as she earns so little money it has not been possible for her to maintain the house.  “I could only repair the house by using old plastic sacks. A thousand taka a month (approximately £10) was not enough for food, so how could I maintain my house? When I left my belongings in another house they said take them away because “when I touch then they make me dirty”.

She continued to cry as she told us that “my daughter did not have fish for six months that I so much wanted to buy a 'big fish' for my daughter, But mother was not able to buy fish.  I always think about my daughter and how I will manage to support her”.

“Sometimes I want to live with my daughter but I can’t manage to while I’m using other people’s homes for toilet and water. It forbids me to live a better life with my daughter. She needs a home.  Last Ramadan we celebrated by eating all types of food but my daughter did not get any food for about three days. There is so much food wasted and she has no clothes to wear and no shoes”.

Thankfully this story has a happy ending, while Seeds of Growth, due to time constraints of Project 2018, was not able to rebuild her house during my stay, it was able to leave enough money for this rebuild to be completed in the following months. This continuation of the project was overseen by Turon of the Seeds Of Growth Committee, Birahimpur and the ever helpful Ramjan who kept me in touch through a video link. 

​Mita’s story written from interviews and conversation by Seeds of Growth Project 2018 representative.