STARS Foundation

Meet Srabon

“When my son Srabon was born with a cleft lip, I was heartbroken and very scared of foreseeing his future and lifelong miseries”, said Md. Nazrul, father of three year old Srabon. Srabon’s mother Nazma told us “While his appearance was initially a shock to me, my overriding concern was how Srabon would be able to eat or drink.”

Nazma found out that her son could have his cleft lip fixed with surgery. However, they just couldn’t afford the surgery that Srabon so desperately needed. Srabon’s father is a farmer and lives hand to mouth with three other children in a small hut in Kajla village under Karimganj sub-district of Kishoreganj district. Md. Nazrul recalled that 5 years back Impact Foundation Bangladesh’s (IFB) ‘Jibon Tari’ Floating Hospital visited their district and provided such surgical services at affordable cost.

In May 2011, once ‘Jibon Tari’ anchored again in Kishoreganj Nazrul and Nazma were finally able to feel hope for their sons future. They visited the floating hospital with their son Srabon and after examining him the Medical Officer selected Srabon for surgery and advised him to come during the cleft lip camp held in July ’11.

On the day of the surgery Srabon’s parents were anxiously waiting in front of the Operation Theater. “It is very difficult to describe how we feel at the moment; we are both nervous about the surgery and excited to see our son with a normal lip for the first time” said Srabon’s mother.

Srabon’s parents were asked to express their feeling as they saw their son come out of the operation with his corrected lip. His father said “It was like a dream come true to us. It felt as if our son was asleep and someone touched a magical stick on his lips and the deformity vanished”. Srabon’s mother added, “I’m wordless to express my feelings but we’ll be ever grateful to ‘Jibon Tari’ for providing us such kind of support. Our son will now grow up like any other children. No one will tease him anymore and he won’t suffer from any inferiority complexity as he grows up.”