Arifa
During my protest, my family and I were harassed and hurt. I was beaten with heavy wooden and bamboo sticks. I was in the hospital for 21 days, and after that, I was put in a safe home for a month.
If my GG team weren’t there for me, I wouldn’t be alive today. Today I am alive only because of their help. There is no addiction in my village now, but the problem persists in neighboring villages. I want to stop addiction in these villages. So be it if I’m assaulted again if I lose more blood – I still want to make these places free of addiction. Addiction destroys society and it hurts the youth. I want to build a happy village.
Nirmol
In 2008, I joined the Gonogobeshok Dol and learned about human rights. I learned about my own rights. I did not understand this prior to this. Today, my village people look up to me for solving their problems. They come to me first for direction on how to deal with their troubles.
In 2012, land grabbers tried to evict me from my land. 450 villagers joined me to combat this injustice against these landgrabbers. Today, through the leadership of Gonogobeshok Dol, we are now 40 families living in this land.
