Christmas Day at The Sreepur Village
On Christmas Day, we wished all of our children at The Sreepur Village, a very Happy Birthday!
As most of our children are unaware of their true date of birth, for a long-time The Sreepur Village has spent Christmas day as a day to mark all of their birthdays. Being able to bring happiness and smiles to lots of young faces is a most joyous experience and we are delighted that each year we are able to celebrate something that they can treasure forever.
Christmas is a time for loving, sharing and giving and it is, of course, fun to receive gifts from a lot of people. For The Sreepur Village children and mothers, the experience is, however, totally different. These most vulnerable people are from the marginalised corners of the country. So on the occasion of Christmas, every year, we like to be the ones who can share blessings and spread love and joy to each and everyone of them. Consequently, with your help, the children and mothers of Sreepur Village were able to celebrate Christmas as their birthday with the utmost solemnity and joy.
Every year, we celebrate the birthdays of over 350 children in the Village, where preparations start as early as the beginning of November. With the help of the children, we decorated the village with Christmas trees, balloons, lights, stars, festoons, ribbons and posters in a variety of different colours. In the morning, we cut a large cake that is a birthday gift for our children, a kind and most generous donation by the Dhaka Regency Hotel and Resort’. Our children truly appreciated the cake and they felt touched by such thoughtfulness. The girls from the Dhaka Night Shelter project and the boys from the Drop in centre also joined us in the birthday celebrations.
One of our members of staff dressed up as Santa Claus and entertained the children by distributing gifts, an activity that grabs them by surprise every year. Pat, Derek, Susan and other members of the project handed out gifts to our children, mothers and guests. There were lots of gifts, from balloons, lollipops, dolls and cars to wrist-watches, satchels, educational tools and much, much more! They also inaugurated the newly constructed play area for the children and served a special lunch for everyone. In the afternoon, the mothers and children staged a cultural programme.
For Jamuna, an eight-year-old girl who came here over six months ago, the day's celebrations were unforgettable. For the first time, she heard that a birthday is a ‘thing’ of celebration! She became very happy when she knew that we were celebrating her birthday. She said, “I loved the entire day, lots of gifts, delicious cake, and lunch and the cultural programme was amazing too. It was an amazing day for me, my brother, and also for my mother.”
We would like to thank all our supporters who helped us to make this Christmas a birthday celebration that all our children and mothers will remember forever.