Did You Pass a Good Life? by Aftab Iqbal

I visited the camps at the end of 2016 and what I saw was so horrible. As I was touring the camp, I saw some bathrooms that were being managed by another NGO and I went to investigate, but the volunteer stopped me and said it was too filthy and I should stay away. I asked, if it’s too filthy for me to even look, how can you manage to use them? And he explained that they had no choice, despite that they were broken and plugged with sewage, and the women had to wait til evening time to even use the toilets because there were no doors, no privacy at all. I thought, no human being should be living like this.

So, I decided that was the project I wanted to take on. It was estimated to cost $10,000, but we made several improvements and modifications, and with the support of family and friends, we were able to raise the funds and complete the project for $22,000. The impact that something as simple as a proper, sanitary bathroom can make in people’s lives is incredible. There is so much we take for granted living in the West. I am so happy to have been able to help those families live more decent lives. But the real work that OBAT is doing, the work that really matters, is not the infrastructure. About 80% of their efforts go to education and this is where you see the transformation. This is what makes them so different.

However, the most innovative project is their Think Tanks. At first, I thought, what a strange project… what is the point of this? But when I met with the Think Tankers, again and again, I began to see the effect. The Think Tanks don’t just change the environment, they change the people themselves. They give them a sense of responsibility and confidence to manage their own community, come up with creative solutions to solve local problems, and institute them with the support of OBAT. This added layer gives OBAT a huge advantage over other NGOs. Because of the Think Tanks, they know what’s happening on the ground. They’re able to work very closely and better meet the needs of the community to help them develop and work toward better lives. 

The Think Tanks are the perfect example of that saying, “When you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; when you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” The Think Tanks empower the camp residents to think for themselves and solve their own problems. I’ve never seen anything like it.

This life that we are living, enjoying our time with our families, we have to be grateful to God. We are privileged enough to be able to have some ease and pleasure in our lives. But we have an obligation, not just to our blood relations, but to any people who are suffering and need some care and support. Whether they are Bangladeshi, Bahari, Bengali… whatever. It doesn’t matter. It is our duty to help people. We must, as human beings, be better than the animals. We cannot just care for our cubs, our offspring, our tribe. We must come out of that box and have compassion and care for other than ourselves.

Then, when the time comes for us to meet our Creator, when we are asking ourselves, “Did I pass a good life?” we will be able to answer, yes. I made a difference. I used my gifts, my wealth, my time, my privilege to help those in need and care for all of God’s creation, not just those closest to me. It’s so important to realize this. To see the obligation we have to help our fellow human beings.