The Children's Uplift Programme (CUP) began in March 2008 to meet the needs of children at risk in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Following research and outreach based intervention CUP opened a drop-in centre in January 2009 for homeless children and mothers to have a safe place to receive support and services. CUP concentrates on supporting mothers from their pregnancy in order to help children from the beginning of their lives.

Rana's Story

Rana, not his real name, has been coming to the centre since we opened over a year ago. He is a beautiful, friendly four year old child who loves to sing. One day Rana's mother came in saying that he'd been missing since the morning. This had happened before so we thought that he had just run off to play with his friends. He didn't return.

His mother thought that someone she owed money had kidnapped him. We followed these leads, she went to the police, we gave out fliers with his picture and details. His mother went out of her mind. She screamed at everyone who went near her. My colleagues went to the mazar [shrine of a saint] and tried to comfort her but she would shout and swear at them. We sent her food but she refused to eat. It felt like a hopeless situation. Every morning we prayed for the young boy's return but with less faith each day. Rana's mother finally came to the centre; a completely broken woman. We prayed with her. There wasn't much else we could do.

The next day, at 9 p.m., Alo, CUP's outreach worker, called me. Rana had been found! He was in a city ten hours north of Dhaka, in an area which borders India. Some days before, a man in this city heard that a very poor neighbor had taken in a little boy. He went to see the situation and saw that the boy appeared drugged. The man was able to take him home. After two days the boy was able to tell the man his name and where he and his mother lived. The man went to the police station and sent someone to Dhaka to go to the mazar. They met Alo who confirmed that the child was "our" Rana.

A colleague and Rana's mother and I drove up the next day to collect him. We think that Rana was drugged and kidnapped with the intention of trafficking him to India. In a nation of 160 million people with a high number of women and children trafficked each year it's incredible that Rana was found—an amazing answer to prayer!

Pray

• Praise God for rescuing Rana!
• For all the children and mothers who CUP serves.
• For new members of staff joining the team.
• That CUP staff will be able find enough sustainable work for the mothers to be able to support themselves and their children.
• That these mothers and children will taste and see that God is good and loving, and that they will know Jesus Christ personally.

Give

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Go

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