From tempo helper to university student

Mohammad Faruk once worked as a helper on a local tempo. His daily duties included helping passengers get on and off, collecting fares and assisting the driver. He sometimes had to spend days without food because of his family’s financial hardship. He also had to wear clothes given to him by others. Yet his dream of continuing his education never stopped.

That Faruk is now a third-year student in the Department of Islamic Studies at the University of Chittagong. He is managing his own education expenses as well as his family’s costs with income from tutoring. Poverty has made his journey difficult but could not stop his dreams.

Faruk is the youngest of four siblings. His family home is in Lakshmipur. There was not much financial hardship in the family during his childhood. However, the situation changed after his father married for a second time. The family’s financial difficulties increased due to his father’s irresponsibility.

“Allah will change our days one day”

At one point, the family moved to Chattogram city because of financial hardship. His mother Aleya Begum then took full responsibility for the family. She worked as a cook at hotels and messes at different times. At the end of the day, she would return home with a small amount of money and leftover food from the hotel. She would share that food with her children.

His mother never let her children understand how much she was suffering. She would only say, “Allah will change our days one day.”

Faruk and his siblings understood the family’s financial hardship from an early age. Alongside their studies, they made snack bags at home. They later sold them from shop to shop.

Sometimes they had to spend days without food. Faruk’s maternal grandmother would bring leftover breakfast from a hotel on credit and feed her grandchildren. There were also days when they had to remain without food for the entire day. One day, a woman from a neighboring house brought them one kilogram of rice and some potatoes. The memory still makes Faruk emotional.

“Why are you working as a helper at such a young age?”

Due to financial hardship, Faruk started working as a helper on his elder brother’s tempo. He helped passengers get on and off, collected fares and assisted the driver.

One day, a passenger on the tempo told Faruk, “Why are you working as a helper at such a young age? Study. And I should not see you here again.”

How he dreamed of studying at a university

The words deeply affected him. While hanging from the tempo, he often saw boys and girls his age going to school or coaching centers. Seeing those students in clean clothes with bags on their shoulders and carefree faces made him rethink his own life. His friends’ interest in education also inspired him. Gradually, Faruk began dreaming of studying at a university.

Although he studied in the science group in secondary school, financial difficulties forced him to enroll in the humanities group in higher secondary school. While his friends were busy with sports and other necessities, Faruk had different concerns. His main thought was whether the money he earned from tutoring at the end of the month would be enough to buy rice for his family.

After completing his Higher Secondary Certificate examination, Faruk began preparing for university admission. He used 4,000 taka from his savings and another 4,000 taka given by his elder sister to enroll in a university admission coaching center with 8,000 taka.

He could not afford to apply to the University of Dhaka. He had only enough money to collect one application form. He used that money to apply for the B Unit at the University of Chittagong.

Faruk said, “It was a do or die situation for me. If I did not get a chance at a public university, I could not afford to study at a private university. Studying at the National University would also have made my future uncertain because of session delays. Managing the family would have become even more difficult. So I told myself one thing: I have to study at the University of Chittagong.”

“No one believed that I had been admitted”

Eventually, that dream came true. Faruk got the opportunity to enroll at the University of Chittagong. He first shared the news with his mother.

Recalling the moment, Faruk said, “As soon as I entered the house, I hugged my mother. It was the first time in my life that I had hugged my mother.”

After pausing for a while, he said, “When I told my sisters that I had been admitted, none of them believed me. They told me to check the result again and come back.”

Faruk is the first person in his family to get the opportunity to study at a public university.

Faruk is now a third-year student in the Department of Islamic Studies at the University of Chittagong. He tutors students alongside his studies. He uses that income to cover his own expenses and support his family.

Faruk’s life has changed. His struggle has not. He is still happy if he can afford dal and rice twice a day. But the young man who once had to run behind a tempo wearing a dirty T shirt now teaches students while wearing clean clothes.

His classmates say Faruk’s story is not a fairy tale. There is no miracle here. There is the continuous sacrifice of a mother. There is the determination of a child who fought through days of hunger.