Conjoined Twins

Bangladeshi mom wants twins to stay in Australia


By JULHAS ALAM
Associated Press Writer
21 Nov., 2009

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ The mother who gave up conjoined Bangladeshi newborn twins for adoption said Saturday she is overjoyed the toddlers have been successfully separated and wants them to grow up in Australia.

"My babies are alive and doing well. It's the best news I've ever got in my life," a tearful Lovely Mollick told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from her home in Khulna district, 85 miles (137 kilometers) southwest of Dhaka.

The twins, who turn 3 next month, had been joined at the top of their heads and shared brain tissue and blood vessels. They were separated Tuesday after 25 hours of delicate surgery in a hospital in Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, and then underwent an additional six hours of reconstructive work.

The charity that brought Trishna and Krishna to Australia two years ago for the surgery, Children First Foundation, has said it will support the twins as they undergo further medical treatment in Australia for at least the next two years.

Trishna awoke from a medically induced coma Thursday and Krishna regained consciousness late Friday.

Their 23-year-old mother said she made the heartbreaking decision to give up her daughters to a Dhaka orphanage after giving birth by cesarean section because she could not properly care for their special needs.

While she and her factory worker husband, Kartik Mollick, 35, wanted to maintain a relationship with their daughters, both parents hoped the twins would be raised in Australia.

"I am from a poor family and am not able to take care of them," the mother said. "I want them to get a proper education and live a good life."

"I want them to maintain a relationship with me, no matter where they live, when they are grown up," she added. "They have come from my soul."

The girls' Australian legal guardian for the past two years, Moira Kelly, the charity's founder, said Saturday she has not considered adoption. "I haven't even thought about it," Kelly told reporters.

Adoptions could be stymied since Australia restricts the adoption of foreign children with medical problems that could burden its health care system.

Kelly said the prognosis that both sisters were neurologically sound "gives me shivers down my spine." The twins' cots will be pushed together so they could again touch, she said.

Krishna is expected to have a longer period of adjustment as the separation brought more changes to her body and brain's blood circulation. Both girls were in serious but stable condition.

Doctors had earlier said there was a 50-50 chance that one of the girls could suffer brain damage from the complicated separation.

Australian aid worker Danielle Noble first saw Trishna and Krishna in an orphanage when they were a month old, and contacted the Children First Foundation.

"I got to see the girls for the first time today since their separation and it's the most incredible feeling to think that three years ago, this was just a dream," the 27-year-old volunteer told reporters.

"Now they are going to have a fantastic life," she added.

The foundation raised almost 250,000 Australian dollars ($229,000) for the cost of caring for the twins in between numerous earlier surgeries to separate blood vessels connecting their brains. A mystery benefactor funded all hospital costs, Smith said.
___
Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this report.

Slapped and threatened!

UNICEF says physical punishment of children in Bangladeshi schools, homes is widespread

Oct 9, 2009

By JULHAS ALAM
Associated Press Writer

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ More than 90 percent of Bangladeshi children have at some point been physically punished in school and nearly three quarters of them face similar treatment at home, according to a report from the United Nations children's agency.
UNICEF representative to Dhaka, Carel de Rooy, said such punishment violates the rights of the children.
"Hitting or smacking children is a type of violence against children that goes against children's rights," Rooy said in a statement that accompanied the report's release Thursday.
But, on Friday, a parent and teacher both defended physically punishing children as an effective way of disciplining children.
Salina Chowdhury, a mother of two in the capital, Dhaka, said using physical punishment helps her teach her children when they misbehave.
Children often do not respond to encouraging words, Chowdhury told The Associated Press via telephone, adding, "in that case, one or two slaps work better."
Siddiqur Rahman, a teacher at a school for girls in the northern district of Mymensingh, said he often hits students with sticks, but only after counseling does not work.
"Punishing them physically often works," he said in a telephone interview.
The UNICEF report states 91 percent of children in Bangladesh's schools are subject to physical punishment, while 74 percent experience corporal punishment at home.
The agency surveyed 3,840 households both in urban and rural areas, interviewing the head of each household and at least one child per house between the ages of 9 and 18, the report said.
Some 87.6 percent of children face beatings with sticks or canes in schools with teachers most often hitting the palm of their hands. Other punishments include twisting ears or skin, pulling hair, slapping them or forcing them to kneel in class.
The survey said 53 percent of students reported that "many to most" of their classmates suffer physical punishment, with 23 percent stating that such punishment in schools takes place daily.
In case of physical punishment at home, more than 69 percent said they are slapped, and 99 percent said they face scolding or are threatened.
Some 60 million of Bangladesh's 150 million people are children, according to UNICEF.

Champion Rat Killer!

Bangladesh awards farmer who killed 83,000 rats, launches culling campaign to save crops


By JULHAS ALAM
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 30, 2009

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ Bangladesh on Wednesday awarded a farmer who killed more than 83,000 rats and launched a monthlong campaign nationwide to kill millions more, to protect crops and reduce the need for food imports.
Mokhairul Islam, 40, won a first prize of a color television for killing some 83,450 rats in the past nine months in Gazipur district near the South Asian country's capital, Dhaka. He collected their tails for proof.
"I am so happy to get this honor," Islam told The Associated Press after receiving a 14-inch television and a certificate amid cheers at an official ceremony packed with 500 farmers and officials. "I had no idea that the government gives prizes for this."
"This is an exciting moment. I will continue to kill them," he vowed.
Officials say the impoverished nation imports some 3 million tons of food annually, while the Ministry of Agriculture estimates that rodents annually destroy 1.5 million to 2 million tons of food.
"We can cut the import of food by at least half if we can succeed in this year's campaign," said Wais Kabir, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council.
He asked everyone, especially farmers, to take on the killing mission as a sport. The government has said it will train mainly farmers and students for this year's campaign.
"Killing rats is not that easy, it needs training," Kabir said.
Islam said he mainly used poison to kill the rats at his poultry farm, and that the cull has paid off as the rodents now scavenged less.
"Previously I needed 33 sacks of poultry feed per week, now I need less than 30," he said.
Fakhrul Haque Akanda, a farmer from northern Bangladesh and the second-prize winner, killed some 37,450 rats mostly with traps, some he invented.
"These bloody rats are my enemy, they destroy my gardens," Akanda said.
"Please pray for me so that I can continue my mission, and teach and motivate others to join me," he told the audience before taking his prize, also a television.
Last year, the U.N. World Food Program launched a monthslong food aid project in the country's southeast after a plague of rats devoured rice crops.

INNOCENCE AT RISK

Bangladesh authorities investigate marriage between 13-year-old girl, 75-year-old man

By JULHAS ALAM
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 13, 2009

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ Authorities in southern Bangladesh are investigating whether a 13-year-old girl was forced to marry a 75-year-old man as a way to pay off her father's debt, local media reported Sunday.
Lokman Shikder loaned the girl's father, Azhar Bepari, 4,000 takas ($59) several months ago, but Bepari had trouble repaying it, the United News of Bangladesh news agency reported. Shikder recently gave Bepari the choice of immediately paying back the money plus interest or allowing him to marry his daughter in exchange for waiving the loan, it said.
Shikder, who was already married, is the father of four grown children and has a host of grandchildren, the news agency said.
Badrul Huq, a government official in Barisal district, said authorities were investigating and legal action would be taken against the father and husband if the marriage indeed took place, the report said. People under the age of 18 are not legally allowed to marry in Bangladesh.
Shikder's first wife also wants her husband punished because he married the girl without her permission, the report said. Men can marry up to four women in Bangladesh, but their wives must agree in writing to any new marriages.
Human rights groups say child marriage is rampant in rural Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 150 million people where almost half of the population lives on less than $1 a day. They say the punishment for violations of child marriage laws is too mild _ one month in jail or a fine of 1,000 takas ($15), or both.
Rashida Akhter Shirin, a women's rights lawyer, said she would help the girl and her family if they want to file a court case against Shikder, the report said.
Officials could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Snakebite death

Bangladesh government says snakebites kill 6,000 Bangladeshis each year

By JULHAS ALAM
Associated Press Writer

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ Some 700,000 people in Bangladesh are bitten by snakes every year and up to 6,000 of those die, in part because of poor access to medical care, making snakebites the impoverished country's second leading cause of unnatural death, a ministry of health study has found.
Most of the incidents occur during the May to October rainy season when snakes are flushed out of their natural environment, Azizar Rahman, director in charge of the government's department of disease control, said Sunday while explaining the snakebite study's findings.
Drowning is the leading cause of unnatural death in Bangladesh, a delta nation that is crisscrossed by some 350 rivers. The country of 150 million people is also home to some 50 species of snake, including the king cobra and krait.
The study, which was conducted by eight local and international experts with funding from the government and the World Bank, found that 29 percent of snakebite victims are bitten while walking at night, 24 percent while working in the fields and 15 percent while they are sleeping.
It's difficult to spot the snakes in the dark in rural areas where electricity and street lights are rare. Almost half of all Bangladeshis live on less than $1 a day.
The study found only 3 percent of the victims are treated at hospitals or by registered doctors, while 86 percent seek treatment from untrained snake charmers or village healers.
Rahman said the study underlined the problem of snakebites.
"It's good that we have done it finally," he said. "Now it will be possible to work on reducing deaths."
He said the government is planning a massive campaign to train people how to treat snakebites.

Ethnic violence

Bangladesh arrests more than 70 in ethnic violence


By JULHAS ALAM
Associated Press
2010-02-24 04:26 PM


Bangladeshi security officials have arrested more than 70 people as part of a crackdown in a town where ethnic violence has left one person dead, a dozen wounded and several homes burned to the ground, police said Wednesday.

Bangladeshi troops and extra police were called in Tuesday to stop ethnic clashes between Bangalee settlers and an indigenous tribe involved in a decades-old land dispute in southeastern Khagrachhari town. All public gatherings were banned and a curfew was imposed in the area, which was once at the heart of a tribal insurgency.

Police said they had recovered the body of a Bangalee man who was shot in the head. A dozen people were wounded in the violence, and several homes on both sides were torched.

More than 70 people from both groups were arrested in overnight raids, a police official at Khagrachhari police station told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Ethnic tension in the region 110 miles (175 kilometers) southeast of the capital, Dhaka, is not new. Authorities resettled landless Bangalees there in the 1980s in a bid to end the tribal insurgency in the area, which borders Myanmar and India. The area was largely Buddhist before the settlers, who are mainly Muslim, arrived.

Tribal groups say many of their people have lost their land because of the settlement and faced brutal repression during years of military operations meant to quell the insurgency. The insurgents signed a peace treaty with the government in 1997, but tensions have continued.

Tuesday's unrest began when activists from the United People's Democratic Front _ which opposes the peace treaty _ blocked roads and waterways in the area to protest the deaths of two tribal people they say were killed last week by security officials during clashes with settlers.

The government has said it will investigate the deaths as well as a series of arsons that the tribal people blame on the settlers.