Mother Teresa Orphanage in Dhaka

Last Friday the Cantemus Choir (which is a group of mainly ex-pats here in Dhaka) went to the Mother Teresa Orphanage in the old part of Dhaka to sing to the children, nuns and helpers. We took along food and drink for afternoon tea, toys for the children to play with and other gifts.

To reach the orphanage we had to walk down one of the old narrow streets of Dhaka, filled with people and with street sellers hawking their wares all down the street: vegetables, spices, clothing, material, knick knacks, all sorts of things.





The orphanage is tucked away in an old building behind the street front shops. There was a statue of the Virgin Mary at the entrance as you can see from the photo. The gentleman on the right in the photo is an American Dr David Sack who is head of the Cholera Hospital here in Dhaka. They do a lot of research into Cholera and other tropical diseases. They call him the King of Diahorrea.



We were given a tour of the orphanage. They have about 15 mentally disabled children in one ward. They were a really sad sight, but they are looked after well by the nuns and helpers. Then there are about 20 - 30 small babies and toddlers. There were about another 20 or so older children up to about the age of five. The children all appear happy, well fed and cared for, and they seem to get lots of cuddles from the nuns and helpers.





Some of the new borns were so tiny. You can see one photo of a tiny baby with my fingers in the shot. My fingers are only slightly smaller than the baby's arm.



We then went into another room where the older children, nuns, helpers and some mothers were gathered and we gave them our concert. The songs included Old McDonald Had a Farm which the children really enjoyed. We sang some Canons and other songs in Latin for the nuns and they all thoroughly enjoyed them.





I had to leave after we finished singing to get to DICC church in time, but the others stayed on for the rest of the afternoon. The children from the orphanage sang some songs and danced, then they all got together for afternoon tea.

It is a great work the orphanage does with limited resources and it was good to play a tiny part in making the children's lives a bit happier.