“I gave birth to triplets. Three daughters. All of them were severely underweight. One of my daughters died that day.” said Hajera, clutching Farzana, her sole-surviving daughter, tightly.
Not long afterwards another of her babies, who was born with hydrocephalus – fluid on the brain – also died.
Worried that she would also lose her last child, Hajera, 20, took Farzana to a government hospital. “But the government hospital could not provide me with the medicines. With no one else to provide for my daughter, I was very anxious.”
Fortunately, the family of another patient at the hospital told her about Calcutta Rescue: “I heard that Calcutta Rescue has people who can help my baby. So I came here. Farzana was two months old at that time.”
Ensuring Farzana thrived became a priority for Sheila, who runs CR’s Mother and Child Health Unit at Talapark Clinic, from the moment she first saw her in October last year.
Since then she has been giving Hajera the baby food, nutrients and vitamins Farzana needs to grow and has kept in regular touch with her, providing support, reassurance and monitoring the baby’s progress.
It takes Hajera an hour to reach the clinic by bus and she always comes alone. Hajera explains: “No one ever comes with me. My husband and mother-in-law don’t like that I gave birth to daughters.” She lives with her husband’s family 12 kilometres from the clinic. He is a jute worker who lost his job during the Covid lockdown.
Many of the people in Kolkata’s slums have lost their jobs during the Covid crisis and now do not have enough to eat. This is likely to have been a factor in why Hajera’s babies were born severely underweight.
Calcutta Rescue has just started research into the impact of the Covid crisis on the welfare of people in the slums, and is providing food to hundreds of families struggling to find enough to eat.
After 5 months of continuous care, Farzana has at last reached a healthy weight. A grateful Hajera said: “Thank you so much for helping my daughter. Now that she’s healthy, I can be at peace.”
