Joya Korem: Speech disability could not prevent her to be indomitable. She dances like a butterfly to charm her audiences. The 18-year old girl, Rekha, was awarded several times for her performance at a specialized school she was enrolled in her childhood in the western Bangladeshi district of Kushtia.

Born in a poverty-stricken family, Rekha’s parents could not raise her as they could hardly manage a meal a day to survive. She is eldest among three siblings. She has a brother and a sister.

Since her parents could not bear the expenses, Rekha was adopted by a kind lady of the district in her early childhood. She has still been living as an integral part of that family. The lady is the principal of a specialized school that takes care of the children challenged both physically and mentally.

She loves to use smart phone to chat with her classmates.

She enrolled Rekhaa in the school soon, and the girl could not speak a word at that stage. She now utter few words despite they are a little unclear. She developed a lot. Rekha usually communicates by using sign language.

The girl is fond of dancing, and she has become quite a good dancer over the past years that brought her a few awards, according to the school administration.

The information communication technology tools have made her communication easier. The technology aided her to overcome the disability. Rekha loves chatting on her smart phone applications. She makes effective communications using IMO, an application, to chat with her classmates.

In the course of time Rekha fell in love with a boy of the school, where the disabled children need to stay longer time than that of the traditional educational institutes. She pursued dreams of a family for long time with Hamidul, her hero.

Rekha along with her classmates

Shocked, when she saw her hero got married one day to another girl, having comparatively fairer complexion than that of her. Rekha believes boy did not marry her because of her complexion and she has shorter hair than that of the girl.

She cried a lot on the wedding date as she felt that the man cheated on her. “That was painful, that was a ‘love broken,’” she said pointing finger on her heart.

But again, it made her stronger enough not to depend on anyone else. She has decided not to get married ever. She doesn’t want to get hurt any more. She has no talking term with the man she once loved so much despite they cross each other almost every day at the school compound.

Tremendous supports from her family, school, teachers and friends made Rekha resolute. She hopes to overcome all the challenges she has been facing in life. She wants to stand alone as a winner.

Joya Korem is a freelance photographer