Story Nisita, Ononna and Ivee

Ononna, Nisita and Ivee are three sisters with severe hearing impairments that have caused them to be slightly behind in their cognitive development.

At the Niketan school, the entire family learned sign language, which opened up their world and resulted in less frustration within the family. The three sisters attend both special education and mainstream education. Their special education teacher gives them additional support with the elementary school lessons that they do not fully understand. As a result, the sisters developed rapidly, but then along came COVID. Firstly, their father could no longer carry out his work and there was no more food for the family. Secondly, the elementary school closed and the girls became isolated. Thirdly, Nisita was harassed by boys from the neighborhood and the family experienced more and more stress.

Thanks to food parcels and financial support from Niketan, the family made it through. But this was not a solution. In addition, Niketan talked to the family about what they needed. With a rickshaw van, the father could bring the harvest of various local farmers to the market. This was a good investment, because it soon provided sufficient income. Nisita attended a sex education training course that enabled her to better protect herself against the boys from the neighborhood and their bad intentions.

Thanks to this support, the family has made it through the COVID years well. They have more income now than they had before the pandemic and the sisters are enjoying being back at school. Unfortunately, during the pandemic many of their friends from school were married off early. Nisita now teaches her younger sisters all about menstruation, puberty, boys and marriage. Fervently, she tells her parents over and over again not to marry them off before the age of 18.

Also read the story of Shifar Tasnin