Mother Unable to Cash Check for Sons Measles Treatment
Photo Collected
A mother in Bangladesh is struggling to access a Tk20,000 (approximately $170 USD) donation intended for her infant son’s measles treatment, unable to cash the check because she is underage and cannot open a bank account. Shahida Khatun, 17, of Noyadiari Sirotola village in Gomostapur Upazila, Chapainawabganj, received the check last Sunday from Chapainawabganj District Council administrator Harunur Rashid, but has been caught in a bureaucratic bind, unable to purchase crucial medicine for her four-month-old child.
Khatun has been shuttling between the bank and the District Council administrator’s office for six days in a fruitless attempt to cash the check. The local branch of Sonali Bank returned the crossed check because she is under 18, making her ineligible to open an account required to deposit and withdraw funds. She now seeks to have the check reissued in her husband Dalim Ali’s name, but he is a day laborer working in Chittagong and cannot afford to leave his job and return home.
বিজ্ঞাপন
The family’s ordeal began when Khatun’s son, now four months old, first developed a fever, respiratory distress, and pneumonia. He spent two months of his young life in the hospital, initially admitted on February 28 at two months old. After a 20-day hospital stay, including three days in intensive care, he was discharged. However, measles symptoms appeared just two days later, prompting a return to the hospital. A second stint in the intensive care unit followed, lasting five days, after which he was moved back to a general ward. Despite the measles resolving, the infant has since battled pneumonia, cold, lung problems, and a blood infection, undergoing another 10-day ICU stay until April 26.
Shahida Khatun, whose father Jewel Ali works as a rickshaw puller in Dhaka, had previously sold three of her father’s cows to fund her son’s treatment, exhausting Tk300,000 (approximately $2,500 USD). After exhausting their funds and unable to afford food and accommodation in Rajshahi city, they had contemplated leaving the hospital despite the infant’s critical condition. The ICU in-charge, Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal, had taken personal responsibility for the child’s treatment during that period.
বিজ্ঞাপন
A report published in *Prothom Alo* on April 27, detailing the family’s plight, prompted Rajshahi Divisional Commissioner A N M Bazlur Rashid to send Tk20,000. Once those funds were depleted, the family voluntarily discharged the child and returned home. However, doctors advised three months of critical injections, which the family could not afford. On May 17, prompted by the news, Chapainawabganj District Council administrator Md. Harunur Rashid presented Shahida with the current problematic check.
On Friday morning, Shahida’s mother, Parvin Begum, tearfully contacted a *Prothom Alo* reporter, expressing regret over marrying her daughter off at a young age. She pleaded for assistance, saying, “We will go to the District Council again tomorrow (Saturday). Please say something, brother. If you say something, the work will be done quickly. We are just running around and around.”
0%
0%
0%
0%
