The Daily Star - HSBC <br>Spreading the smile
“May this Eid be the best Eid of your life and bring a big smile on your face that will never fade!” this was the greeting Fariha Hashmi, Ashma Akhter Hashmi, Nasima Akhter and Anika Zaman gave to an orphan living at a government orphanage. Under a joint initiative of The Daily Star and the HSBC bank titled “It's Time to Smile”, readers of the largest English newspaper of the country were given blank Eid greeting cards on August 12 and 13 to write Eid greetings for orphans. Though the orphans are unknown to them, the readers came forward to greet them and share joys of the country's biggest religious festival. To make unfortunate children smile in this joyous season, The Daily Star received 12,000 responses from readers all over the country in the last 48 hours. Many more responses could not be received due to the Eid holidays but as the greetings come those will be distributed. The Eid greetings reached over 5,000 orphans living in more than 60 government-run orphanages in 45 districts of the country. Selina Hossain, eminent writer of the country, wrote, “Eid is a very big festival for you. Open your mind and be joyful. Just feel that all the people of this city are standing beside you. See how beautiful this country is.” President of Sammilito Sangskritik Jote Nasiruddin Yusuf Bacchu wrote in his greeting message, “Pleasures and Smiles of Eid may spread everywhere, to the face of all the children to the heart of all the people.” The initiative, first of its kind in the country, brought pleasures and big smiles on the faces of many orphans as many of them received such greeting cards for the first time in their lives. Our Chittagong office reported that they distributed around 3,300 Eid greeting cards. Out of those cards 2,950 were distributed in 25 orphanages of different districts whereas the rest of the cards were given to street children of Chittagong city. The only government orphanage in Chandpur with 175 girls residing in it did not receive any gift from the government as of yet, reported a correspondent from Chandpur. However, yesterday the girls had a reason to smile as they received Eid greetings wishing them happy and good lives. Rabbi, a six-year-old boy was speechless after receiving a card with Eid greetings. He has been staying at Sarkari Shishu Paribar (Government Children's Home) in Mymensingh for the last six months, said our Mymensingh correspondent. Manikganj correspondent reports the orphans were surprised seeing the Eid greetings given by strangers. Eid cards have been distributed among 100 orphan girls of an orphanage in Manikganj on Wednesday afternoon. “I am so happy today. This is the first time in my life that I have received such an Eid greeting,” said Nasrin Begum, a 15- year-old orphan girl and a student of class X. All greetings were screened by The Daily Star before sending them out to prevent any inadvertently written inappropriate message from reaching the children.
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