History of Hicare

Despite a personal predicament, in order to oblige the Souvenir Committee to pen the history of Hi-Care, I am recapitulating how this society came into Existence.

My youngest son Bappi suffered an attack of Meningitis on the fourth day of his birth in 1970. Unfortunately, as a result of this attack, he lost his hearing. Resentfully, while he was growing, his speech could not develop properly. A handicapped person is, in one sense, of course, the better prey of the selfish mind and guardians of other such innocent children deprived by nature, of the gift of hearing.

As a mother, my compassion towards various needs of the no more temporal awakening aroused immense concern spread around my city. I looked for parents like myself so as to give my agony and grief an open voice. In the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Australia and Japan, I heard, were sheltered. There was a ray of hope that my child too be made to feel positive and normal like others, if those attempts of education imparted to such unique socially, mentally, and physically unfit children could be introduced not only for Bappi, and myself, but for others alike. There was no hope for such parents whose situations they all seemed to have locked in the chains of silence. These feelings gave birth to the idea of forming a society, Hi-Care, through which I could try and make the impossible possible. With a few like-minded parents, with my failed limbs and an unshaken mind, I laid a keen foundation of the society in 1980.

Today, I recall, with gratitude, Ratan-Villa, the present residence of Dr. Shahla Khatun, for helping Hi-Care grow. She herself was the house doctor of Bappi. I remember, with gratitude, also people like Professor Anwarullah Chowdhury, S.M. Rashid Haider, Jalaluddin, Syeda Shamsun Nahar Haque, Mrs. Shahida Rahman, Mrs. Sajeda Akhter, Mrs. Shaheen Haq, Mrs. Zubaida Shaheen, Mr. Mufarriq M. Araf, Ridgely Haque and Mrs. Maria; and for others who stood by Hi-Care with affection.

The history of Hi-Care would be senseless without mentioning the London Mission Board of Handicap Welfare Services, Education Department of Leeds by Miss Anderson, who visited Bangladesh in 1980, with a team of four and advised us with their vision of the care of such mothers and handicapped children. With my strong association, I visited the same British centers of education and therapy again in 1980-1981, trying to see how such action methods could be introduced in this country with limited resources. She also stressed the importance of forming a Society for such handicapped children, so that no more innocent child gets the feeling of rejection due to such major birth defects.