A young mother’s dreams for her child’s future

Dear Abu Bakkar,

I have many dreams for you.

May you grow up to be a great person. May you pursue your studies diligently. My son, may you always remain well. I wish for your future to be bright.

May you learn to treat everyone respectfully. Live by your own will and study well. You are someone I cherish dearly. Whatever you ask your mother for, she will try to provide it.

May I be able to provide you with an education so that you can stand tall with dignity among everyone! I know you will follow your own heart. Many people dream that their child will become a great doctor or engineer. God forbid, even if you do not become such, I dream that you will stand on your own feet and earn an honest living. So that you will never suffer neglect from anyone.

Whatever you desire, may that come true.

Sincerely,

Your mother, Morjina.

 

[We asked Morjina, if she was to write a letter to her 10 months old son Abu Bakkar, what would it say. This was her response.]

“I felt so angry at myself. I kept saying, “Why can’t I do anything on my own?” I couldn’t go anywhere outside the room. I couldn’t manage anything on my own.”
 

Six months pregnant. 17 years old. Surrounded by floodwaters. Nowhere else to go.

This was Morjina’s reality in 2024, when her village in Cumilla was battered by floods. Her home, like many others, was submerged in dirty floodwater. Household items were ruined, their ducks and chickens perished, and even basic movements, like stepping outside the house to collect drinking water from the community’s handpump, became impossible. As her health was fragile, her family asked her to stay on the only dry spot – the bed. Still, her feet touched the cold, dirty water.

"My mother was my lifeline during these moments,” says Morjina. “She waded through the floodwater to fetch food and drinking water from kind neighbours, borrowed money from whoever she could, and made sure me and the baby in my womb survived."

Still, the challenges were immense. Due to prolonged exposure to the cold water, her baby caught pneumonia in the womb, leading to seizures after birth. Already a young mother dealing with low haemoglobin, it was a scary experience for Morjina.

After birth, her son Abu Bakkar spent seven days at the Newborn Stabilization Unit (NSU) in Muradnagar Upazila Health Complex. The whole treatment cost about BDT 50,000, which was a very large amount of money for her family, and a sum cobbled together from family contributions and loans. Morjina is a housemaker, and her husband was recently detained by the police while selling vegetables on the pavement. So, this was the only option to make sure their child survived.

When Abu Bakkar was seven months old, a small help arrived. Morjina’s mother received a phone call informing her that the Government, through UNICEF’s emergency humanitarian cash transfer programme, would provide BDT 6,000 for her child. The money helped cover some medical bills.

“The 6,000 felt like 100,000 taka at that moment,” Morjina recalls. “We were struggling to pay back people.”

Today, Abu Bakkar is a healthy child. Confirmed by the Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) tape measurement, he has no signs of malnutrition. He is curious, playful, and likes being around people, especially if they play peek-a-boo with him.

For Morjina, life isn't free of challenges, but her dream for Abu Bakkar remains boundless. She wants him to grow healthy, choose his own path, and live free from struggle. With every small step that she is taking towards fulfilling these dreams – each nutritious meal, each routine health checkup, each game of peek-a-boo that sparks Abu Bakkar’s laughter – Morjina’s journey tells us that even in the face of uncertainty, the hope for children to grow, survive and thrive continues to live.

Humanitarian Cash Transfer (HCT)

In 2024, floods and cyclone Remal devastated parts of southeastern Bangladesh, sweeping away homes, submerging schools and playgrounds, and even claiming lives of children and families. In the aftermath, even something as routine as a health check-up became a financial burden for families like Morjina's. To ease that burden, UNICEF, with generous support from the European Union (EU), worked with the Government to identify the most vulnerable mothers for humanitarian cash transfers.

The programme focused on mothers with children under two years old, using Government health records to find those who had regularly attended antenatal check-ups or delivered their babies at public health facilities. Each mother received a flexible allowance of BDT 6,000 (about USD 51) as recommended by the Cash Working Group. The money was sent directly via mobile banking, cutting out delays.

The EU-supported emergency response reached over 16,500 families in Cumilla, Habiganj, Laxmipur, Noakhali, Bramanbaria, Maulvibazar and Sylhet. Of these, over 1,600 flood affected families with pregnant and breastfeeding mothers received humanitarian cash assistance.  For many, it meant getting healthcare, nutritious food, and other essentials, and in some cases, relief from debts.

For mothers like Morjina, the flexible cash allowance meant more than mere numbers on a screen. Not only did it give them some financial relief, but also the dignity to make their own choices.

Delivering Humanitarian Cash Transfers to New Mothers | UNICEF in Bangladesh | 2026