About Ali

Traditionally in most countries, those building facilities and making care arrangements for disabled people concentrate on one kind of disability. Usually there is one school for the deaf, one for the blind, one for those with mental problems, and so on. Likewise there is one group of medical specialists and one lobbying group/charity dedicated to doing the best for that one disability.

Ali saw the possibilities of bringing the different disabled categories together into a mutually supportive group where they could all help each other in their daily lives, learn from each other and thereby learn to feel wanted and useful – and above all have fun.

For this to work they needed a common means of communication. So Ali’s idea was to teach them all sign language (including the blind!).

His aim is not to provide an institutional home or permanent refuge but to turn round the children’s lives and equip them to live in the community with dignity. This may involve medical operations e.g. for a cleft lip or club foot, manufacturing assistive devices, training in life skills and training in work skills, training for other family members in looking after the disabled child.

Another of his innovative ideas is to teach all the children to swim. It may seem strange to people in Western developed countries where every child is taught to swim at school if not before, but in Asian countries the ability to swim is rare.

It was a long wait before the opportunity came to try out his ideas in practice. But
in four years at Bhola Garden Ali has already had remarkable success in turning his ideas into practice.

It was not easy at first. He had to go into the villages on his bicycle and win the confidence of the families just to find the disabled children (who were often hidden away out of family shame). He then had to persuade them to entrust the children to his care.

Now he is known around the island as the man to come to if your child has a cleft or similar disability. At first, he was arranging cleft operations for children who were perhaps five or ten years old. Now some of them are brought to him soon after birth. Then not only can they receive the operation much earlier (at 6 months for a cleft lip, 12 months for a cleft palate) but in the meantime the mother can be helped with, for example, advice on breast-feeding techniques.

Initially at Bhola Garden Ali did everything. Now that it is established and the finances have been put onto a permanent footing, a priority for Ali is to reduce the dependence on himself. Also, as the place expands, more hands are required and the amount of administrative work increases.

Ali’s son, Ali Haidar, is based in Dhaka where he looks after the children coming for operations and with such matters such as the applications for NGO status. He also looks after the IT and other administation for Ali.

As Bhola Garden expands it is hoped that the staff can be trained up to take on more of Ali's work.