Helpless woman, baby get shelter

Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa) in Rajshahi city yesterday took responsibility for the woman and her newborn baby boy who were left to begin an uncertain life at Rajshahi University (RU) Railway Station.

The Daily Star in a report on Sunday said three friends assisted by locals saved speech-impaired Firingi Khatun after she gave birth to a baby boy at an abandoned passenger's waiting room of the railway station. 

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"Moved by the newspaper report, the charity authorities decided to provide them a decent shelter,” said Mery Bondita, in-charge of Missionaries of Charity in the city's Mohisbathan, adding that "We do this kind of charity work."

She said the organisation would ensure their accommodation at a ward for mothers and children and provide them food and care. “They can stay here as long as they want."

Around 3:00pm, Rafiqul Islam and Shahinuzzaman, two of the three friends who are studying at RU, and Ziaur Rahman, a local who participated in the rescue, took Firingi and her baby to the charity by a battery-run auto-rickshaw, popularly known as easy bike, and handed them over to the charity authorities.

This correspondent found that after reaching the charity, Firingi looked around and wondered finding neat and clean environment of her new shelter. She sat in her bed there, taking her baby on her lap. Looking at her son, she kept on smiling.  

The station's passenger's waiting room was not a suitable place for the mother and child. They would be safe at the charity, Rafiqul said.

The charity authorities contacted Rafiqul on Sunday, but some formalities delayed taking them to the charity, he said.

Meanwhile, a businessman of Joleshwaritola in Bogra has donated some money to the woman after reading the newspaper report.

Wishing not to be named, he told this correspondent that he had saved the money from his monthly income for donating to an orphanage on the occasion of his daughter's first birthday on October 22. 

"No more financial support is required now. She needed a shelter and it was found,” Rafiqul added.

WOMAN'S IDENTITY

Rafiqul found the national identity card of the woman. In the card, the woman has been named Firingi Khatun, daughter of Shafiqul Islam of Islampur-Laxminarayanpur of Chapainawabganj Sadar upazila, said Rafiqul. 

Ziaur Rahman, the local rescuer, said, "Although she cannot speak, she gave us some information through gestures."

Her husband was also a speech-impaired person who died after being crushed under the wheels of a train somewhere at the RU railway station a couple of months ago. But the woman did not go back to her parent's house in Chapainawabganj, said Ziaur.