Story Saad

As a real actor and with a naughty smile Saad looks into the camera. Saad is seven years old and suffers from Down Syndrome. Shortly before his birth his parents had left their homestead in rural Bangladesh and moved to Dhaka, the big city.

His father soon found a job as a driver and his mother took good care of Saad. The first three years of his life his parents didn’t notice anything strange about Saad and they enjoyed his presence and loved him without any misgivings.

But when growing up it gradually appeared that he was becoming really mischievous. He didn’t listen to his parents anymore, behaved badly, spat at other children and became more and more aggressive. His parents felt embarrassed, became isolated and didn’t dare to take him along to family gatherings or even getting out in the streets.  When Saad turned seven he hardly ever left their little home in the slums of Badda, Dhaka.

Then, somehow, they learned about another boy with a disability who went happily to the Amor Joti special education school in Badda. And thus Saad entered the early intervention program and was diagnosed with Down Syndrome.

After a few months he was admitted to the special education school. There he is benefitting from the clear and structured program and slowly but surely his frustration and difficult behavior are diminishing and he even starts to develop friendships with other children. And this is how we find him now, joking and smiling in front of our camera – which half a year ago nobody would have dared to believe!

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