About Ali (who runs Bhola Garden)

Howlader Muhammad Akkel Ali is known to all as “Ali”. 

A lifetime working with the disabled

For much of his life Ali has worked with orphaned and disabled children. Orphaned himself at age eight he has a natural empathy for such children. From his time at Barisal Government Orphanage he knows what it is like to be in institutional care. He has seen with his own eyes what a struggle it is in Bangladesh when a child has lost his or her father, mother or both and when a child has disabilities.

From 1970 to 2004 Ali worked with the Swedish Mission, an NGO, on Bhola. During this period he developed his vision of a better way of helping orphaned and disabled children but was frustrated at not being able to put his ideas into practice.

In 2004 the opportunity finally came. With the financial assistance of Bruna Colombo-Otten and Lars-Erik Wallhagen he opened the home and school at Bhola Garden.

His dream realised at Bhola Garden

Ali’s ideas

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, classroom education, training in life skills and training in work skills, or training for other family members in looking after the disabled child. After three years most children are expected to return to their families/communities to make room for others. But, if they are not capable of transferring to mainstream school at that point, they can stay and receive training in employable skills ­ tailoring, farming, woodwork or metalwork.

Ali believes in teaching all the children to swim both for therapy purposes and as a basic life skill on an island with so much water. Blind and deaf children playing water polo with those with cerebral palsy is an interesting sight!

Putting his ideas into practice

It was a long wait before the opportunity came to try out his ideas in practice. But in six 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?

Similarly, it is important that the deaf children are being brought to him before they start school. At mainstream school they would fall behind their age group very fast, whereas at Bhola Garden, where everybody signs, they progress by leaps and bounds.

Securing the future of his vision

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. Finding suitably qualified staff on Bhola, particularly for the more senior positions, is not easy. The need to attract from further afield, including seeking overseas volunteers, is one reason why the trustees have made it a priority to expand and improve the staff accommodation.