Rob Halligan: Vivid memories of the singer songwriter's trip to Bangladesh

Sunday 18th October 2009

Songsmith ROB HALLIGAN journeys from his Midlands comfort zone to learn a little of life, and mission, in Bangladesh



Continued from page 3

Back at the hotel we made our way to the dining room where I had local fish and chips and a bottle of Sprite. Back in my room it seemed that I was the only big creature in there for the night.

Thursday 17th September
One of Global Care's little mottos is "Just because you can't do everything doesn't mean you should do nothing". It's one of those sayings that vetoes any cop-outs and I love it so much I put it into a song. It's also one of those easy things to say and something that's tested when you come to a place like Horintana.

This lady started a tea shop with the help of the micro-finance
project
This lady started a tea shop with the help of the micro-finance project

One of the first things John Bose wanted us to see was part of the micro-finance project that he set up with help from Global Care. We met with around 30 ladies from the village who have been involved in the project. One of the key people in this project is Margaret, a teacher at the pre-school. Margaret is an amazing young lady. She teaches full time at the school and runs the micro-finance project and still finds time to study for her degree at university. She said, "We are trying very hard to improve things for the community and for the ministry here. We are poor but love can make things work."

She explained to us how the project works. Each week someone will put something into the micro-credit fund. After three months they can apply to the programme for some funds for their idea, for instance, they may want to buy five chickens. The people on the programme will then agree or disagree to lend the money and then the person will have 12 months to pay it back in weekly instalments. It's seemed very simple but asking around the group we found that no-one had lost any money and a few of the women have been very successful. We went to visit some of the families that have benefited from it.

The first home was a tiny shack built precariously on the bank of one of the rivers. The lady explained that their house had been badly damaged during the last hurricane season and was very wet. Seven people sleep on a small platform next to the river. This family had nets financed through the micro-credit programme which meant her husband could now catch and sell his own fish rather than work for someone else and just be paid labour. Another lady had borrowed enough to start a small tea shop, which was our next stop. She told us that the programme enabled her and her family to work for themselves and have some control over their own income. The tea and cake she gave us was very good and may have had something to do with her success!

We headed back to the project and I spent some time catching up on interviewing some of the staff and children at the school. One little girl that Margaret talked to was in a lot of pain. We found out she had acute appendicitis. She had been given tablets but needed an operation, something that her family or the school had no way of paying for. These are very hard situations to know how to deal with. The operation would cost around $100, which is nothing in the western world. But there are many, many children in this kind of position and it's impossible to meet this need on that kind of scale.

Ron Newby, Global Care's founder, used to use a story about a man who was walking on a beach littered with starfish that had been washed ashore. He started picking them up and throwing them back one by one. Someone saw him and said, "That's not going to make a lot of difference, you know." "It is to that one," he said, throwing another back into the sea. We agreed that we should pay for the operation but it did bring up the reality of the problems places like this face.

My next job was to interview John Bose. John is a lovely guy and to see the Love Bangladesh Ministries pre-school and orphanage is a testimony to his hard work and passion for the children in Bangladesh. In 2002 John found a boy whose mother had left him with his grandparents. They were too old and poor to look after him so John took him in. Soon he had five and the Love Bangladesh Ministry was born. Now the orphanage houses 20 boys and the school has 182 boys and girls from the Horintana area. John had met Global Care a few years earlier and Horintana had become one of their partner projects. Global Care have funded the new cyclone- and flood-proof building, the chicken farming, paddy field and fish pools and micro-credit project, and they run a child sponsorship programme.

Stu and James get stuck in with painting
Stu and James get stuck in with painting

Chris and Stu were painting one of the bedrooms under the watchful eye of a local workman. I had a quick look in and realised I wasn't needed as they had everything under control.

The fish farm was something I'd been eager to get stuck in with so I was glad of the chance to cast my nets as best I could. Some of the team had beaten me to it and as one of the helpers showed me how to wind the rope and then the net around my arm Paul and Jared shouted less than helpful instructions. "Everyone's an expert!" I shouted. I pulled the net out and it was empty. "This is a bad place to try", said Chris. "It's where the water drains out."

So off we went around the other side of the pond, me getting tied up in the muddy, wet fishing net. I had another try and, in my humble opinion, the throw at least looked good. I pulled it out and there was a cheer from the crowd of boys as a silver wriggling fish thrashed about. How big was it? Huge of course! In fact there were three of them.

Our final event of the day before we headed back to our hotel was a visit to the "Sunday school" held every Thursday evening about five kilometres from the school. It was another tuk-tuk ride. These were fast becoming my favourite form of transport.

We had another overwhelming welcome when we arrived with songs, flowers and traditional incense as we walked down the path. We were introduced and the children performed some of their songs for us and we were asked to sing something for them. Remembering how well "Dance, Dance" went the previous day Marg suggested we try it again. What followed can only be described as complete mayhem with children and adults hoping, clapping, shouting, stomping and jumping. It was fantastic. Again we were treated in a way that was incredibly humbling. These are such grateful and generous people.

Friday 18th September
This was our last day in Horintana before we headed off to Khulna to visit the Home Of Joy. The first thing that caught my eye as we got off the boat was a number of men working on the banks of the river, carrying mud up from the low tide mark to shore up the banks. I asked if we could walk down to have a closer look, after all I'd seen it on the BBC a couple of weeks previously so it had to be worth checking out. I climbed down the bank and got the okay from one of the workers to walk down to the pits that were being dug out.

Showing page 4 of 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Be the first to comment on this article

We welcome your opinions but libellous and abusive comments are not allowed.












We are committed to protecting your privacy. By clicking 'Send comment' you consent to Cross Rhythms storing and processing your personal data. For more information about how we care for your data please see our privacy policy.