State minister for environment sits on the ground to eat with the homeless in surprise visit to Mongla’s ‘Ekbelar Mehmankhana’
Photo: Collected
Not at a table and chair but sitting on the ground, State Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Dr Sheikh Faridul Islam had lunch with homeless and helpless people. He turned up unexpectedly at ‘Ekbelar Mehmankhana’, organised in Mongla at the initiative of local youths.
The programme was organised in the Mongla Port Municipality area after Jumma prayers on Friday. Taking part in it, the state minister enquired after the helpless people who had come there and expressed his solidarity with them.
Local youths have taken this initiative for the helpless, distressed, beggars and homeless people of Mongla Port Municipality and the surrounding villages. The aim is to put nutritious, good-quality food in their mouths for at least one meal a week. The event has been running every Friday after Jumma prayers for the past year. Its costs and work are being met through the organisers’ own funds, the cooperation of local traders and well-wishers, and voluntary labour.
State Minister Dr Sheikh Faridul Islam had several pre-scheduled government administrative programmes in Mongla on Friday. After completing them, he came to know of this humanitarian initiative of the local youths. He then went straight to the venue of the Mehmankhana without any formality.
At the venue, hungry and homeless people were sitting on jute mats spread on the ground. Instead of sitting at a table and chair, the state minister sat beside them and enquired after them. Later, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Sharmin Akter Sumi, the assistant commissioner (land), police officers of Mongla Police Station and political leaders including upazila BNP general secretary Abu Hossain Poni, who were accompanying him, also had lunch sitting there.
Speaking to journalists after the meal, the state minister for environment said that behind this glittering society there are still many helpless and extremely poor people who have to struggle just to manage two handfuls of rice; they do not get to eat even one proper meal. He described the initiative taken by local youths to feed these neglected people one good meal at least one day a week as very noble and praiseworthy.
Dr Sheikh Faridul Islam further said that if discrimination is to be removed from society, everyone in society, including the affluent, should come forward for such humanitarian work. That keeps the bond of social harmony stronger and unbroken, and everyone can become a true companion in each other’s joys and sorrows.
