Ballads of the Agonized Souls

"when i brought shabjal to dhaka from manikganj for his treatment, he didn’t want to let go of my hands because he was afraid of getting lost. my sweetheart is lost forever… now wherever i go i carry this picture, i feel he is with me." shahida begum, shabjal's mother shabjal, died of thalassaemia, at the age of 14, on shraban 7, 1414 many mothers like shahida begum are just living with the memories of their lost loved ones. hundreds of thousands of parents fight every moment to survive their children suffering from thalassaemia. ballads of the agonized souls is a combination of some still-life images and portraits. the still-life images contain the memories of the lost ones and the portraits represent the brave fighters who are on the edge of cruel-cold death. according to a publication of world health organization (who) roughly 11.2 million people are thalassaemia carriers and 7,483 children are born with the disease every year with expected 3,74,154 living patients in Bangladesh. but most of the people in our country are not aware of it! i am not a physician. nor a specialist about thalassaemia disease. rather merely a photographer. i only know that this fatal disease can be prevented. a mass consciousness is necessary to do that. i have been photographing people affected by the deadly disease for last two years. my intention of doing this project is to explore the real scenario as much as i can. the battle against this disease cannot be fought alone. a social movement is required to uproot thalassaemia where the government, media, physicians, guardians, patients and everyone will have roles to play. my effort is just to be a part of this cohesive battle. About Thalassaemia the term thalassaemia is derived from the greek word "thalassa" meaning "the sea" as the patients were initially identified in the mediterranean area. it was also termed as "mediterranean anaemia". thalassaemia is an inherited blood disorder by which the body is unable to produce adequate hemoglobin (hb) in red cells of blood. normally red cells survive for 120 days. but thalassaemia-affected red cells survive less than that. if parents are thalassaemia carriers their children may become diseased. persons born with thalassaemia suffer from chronic anaemia. as a result their growth is stunted and without any treatment they usually die by the age of 5. thalassaemia is not seen everywhere in the world. it is concentrated in south-east asia and mediterranean region. every year over 250 millions people are affected by thalassaemia and 100,000 thalassaemia majors (carriers) are born across the world. according to a publication of world health organization (who) roughly 11.2 million people are thalassaemia carriers and 7,483 children are born with the disease every year with expected 3,74,154 living patients in bangladesh. the only permanent cure for thalassaemia is bone marrow transplantation which is a very expensive treatment and not available in bangladesh. the best treatment available today is of frequent blood transfusions (every two to three weeks) with iron chelating therapy. the only possible way to survive from this deadly disease is to prevent it earlier. for this, every one should be cautious. every one should take blood hb-electrophoresis or carrier detection examination. if anyone is a thalassaemia carrier, he or she should be careful about marriage and taking children. thus the future child will not be affected by the deadly disease by their parents.

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“the doctor sai… "when i brought… "sometimes i ge… “this is an art… “what didn’t i … “our sister was… “my elder son s… “i dream to be … "jasmine had al… “ronnie was ver… "my sister used… “shanto’s fathe… “imon has a swe… “sajeeb has bee… "bhaiya used to… “i have been ma… “we two brother… “this picture w… “i don’t like t… “reeshad had ex… “this is the ph… “most of the ti… “my two other c… we feel very sa… “sometimes i ge…

Keywords thalassaemia,disease,inherited, blood,disorder,hemoglobin,red ,cells,children,health,crisis,hospital, dhaka,bangladesh,