A letter from Cindy Morgan serving in Bangladesh
august 28, 2015 - out of the boat, into the waves
“Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.”
Matthew 14: 28, 29
Dear Friends and Family,
Serving in a country where women are often rendered voiceless and invisible is leading me deeper into the struggles faced by girls living in the slums and on the streets of Dhaka. But the farther I step out into these turbulent waters, the harder it is to keep my head above water. What I am hearing and seeing is threatening to pull me under.
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Cindy Morgan with Lucky, Kajol, Jannat and others in a CBSDP adolescent group in the slums of Dhaka
Lucky, a longstanding member of an adolescent group organized by the Church of Bangladesh Social Development Program (CBSDP) to inform and empower young women, married at 13 and gave birth to her first child at 14. Her newborn son, however, lived only a day—her young body was not mature enough to bear a child. Of all the members in Lucky’s group, only the few still in school have held onto their dreams of serving in society, like 9-year-old Kajol, who wants to be a teacher, and 10-year-old Jannat, who wishes to become a doctor so she can help the poor. The dreams of the others evaporated when they became child brides.
Fifteen-year-old Moonie, a member of another CBSDP group, married within a week of an unanticipated proposal. While she was visiting a new area with her mother, a woman spotted her and recommended her as a potential bride for a relative. Without a real say in the matter, Moonie left school to cook, clean and care for her new husband, a man her father’s age. Now she has a 1-year-old daughter, and her husband refuses to let Moonie attend CBSDP group meetings, saying he doesn’t believe in them and their insubordinate messages.
Although marriage below the age of 18 is illegal in Bangladesh, two out of three girls marry before they turn 18. What’s more, Bangladesh has the world’s highest rate of girls marrying under 15 years of age. These young brides are often pressured to conceive within a year and as adolescents are much more vulnerable to complications during pregnancy, such as anemia, eclampsia, and premature, prolonged, and obstructed labors. Girls who give birth before 15 years of age are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s. Their babies, like Lucky’s, are at increased risk of serious health problems and death. Younger, less educated brides are also at higher risk of domestic violence.
Other girls I have come to know, those who live on the streets, daily face the risk of sexual exploitation. Over a million children live on the streets of Dhaka, and one out of five is a girl. Nine-year-old Brishti first came to me for medical treatment at Jokhon-Tokhon (When-Then), a daytime drop-in center run by the Church of Bangladesh to provide a safe place in Old Dhaka for street children to bathe, study, draw, play and eat. With tangled hair and stained clothes, Brishti spends most of her days begging. Her mother earns some money keeping the area around a local water pump clean, and the two of them sleep on the street near the pump at night. Now men have sex with Brishti as they do with her mother; they give Brishti 20 taka (25 cents) afterward.
I’ve also treated 7-year-old Fatima for sexually transmitted infections. Her mentally challenged mother sells rice and curry on a sidewalk in Victoria Park, just across the street from Jokhon-Tokhon. Just a block away a 12-year-old about eight months pregnant approached me for alms. And while riding a rickshaw yesterday I passed a woman asleep on a sidewalk near the train station with a 4-year-old girl crouched beside her. With deep sorrow I comprehended what lies in store for the child.
In Bangladesh the Church floats on these toxic waters, and like the disciples of Jesus in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, I see him out amidst the waves, beckoning me to come to him. But as I step out of the boat and struggle to serve the poor and oppressed and meet girl after girl robbed of her childhood, dignity and dreams, I feel the vortex of dark undercurrents dragging me under. Menacing waves toss wildly and splash over me. Like Peter, I feel myself sinking.
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Brishti and Cindy reaching out to each other.
Sometimes while walking through the slums and along the streets of Old Dhaka I run into some of these girls I have gotten to know over the years, and we stop and visit a while. The other day when I saw Brishti she smiled and, as she usually does, held up her right hand in the sign of “I love you.” I held out my hand in the same way, and we then touched our extended thumbs, index and pinkie fingers and rotated our hands in a smooth, choreographed handshake. Through this simple, fun and powerful gesture, we reach out to each other and help keep each other from sinking in the waves.
With 103 congregations in cities and rural villages across the country, the Church of Bangladesh strives to give voice and hope to the oppressed. CBSDP is in the process of building the confidence and strengthening the solidarity of its current adolescent and women’s groups while simultaneously forming new groups. By promoting and facilitating birth registration, CBSDP will provide girls with a legal, fixed date of birth that, with the support of their group, will protect them from becoming unwilling child brides. Through these groups and their joint village organizations CBSDP will advocate for other child rights as well. In addition, the Church of Bangladesh runs primary, secondary, and nursing schools that allow girls to complete their studies through high school and beyond. In these ways and more the Church is stepping out into the waves to extend its hand to girls and young women in Bangladesh.
Thank you for making it possible for me to respond to Christ’s call to minister to girls on the streets and in the slums of Dhaka. Your faith and prayers are helping us keep our heads above water and remind us that Christ is with us.
Holding on,
Cindy
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The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 232
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