who we are
from runaway to relief worker
right and centre: Mamoun helps other children as a staff member at the CSKS shelter.
left: how it all began: Mamoun (on the left) being cared for at the same shelter 4 years previously.
As a young child, Mamoun was regularly beaten by his stepmother. At the age of ten, after one particularly brutal beating, he jumped on a steamer heading for Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka: one of thousands of children who, each year, run from violence or poverty to a new life in the city. Most end up on the streets, face to face with violence and poverty again.
Mamoun was one of the lucky ones. On his first night in Dhaka, he met an outreach worker from a project run by MRDF partner CSKS who told him about their shelter for street children. Here, he could sleep safely, play, learn, wash, get medical care when he needed it, train and study for an independent future.
The outreach and shelter staff provide positive role models for children who have previously been abused or ill treated by adults. So much so, that Mamoun decided he too wanted to be a CSKS worker when he grew up.
Now, six years later, he is second in command at the same shelter where he arrived that first night in Dhaka.
