Dubai — Tending to children and being around them has become a way of life for Mohammed Hassan.
The polite Bangladeshi conductor foreman has been overseeing the safety of primary class students travelling in school buses at The Kindergarten Starters (KGS) for the past eight years.
“My day is incomplete without these children and every weekend I look forward to starting school and being with these small children.
“It has also become a habit to see them everyday. It reminds me of my own kids, who are back home in Dhaka and lessens the emotional burden of being away from them,” says the 35-year-old father of two children.
Hassan’s role is to ensure the maintenance of the school’s huge fleet of 72 buses, regularly brief conductors on how to tackle children, help children alight and board the bus, check if they reach their homes and classrooms, travel on the routes every week to ascertain that children are being dropped and picked up on time and deal with any complaints of parents related to conductors.
His commitment to the job led to his promotion from a bus attendant to a conductor foreman.
“Though I am a conductor foreman, I travel on the bus to observe how things are working and try to constantly improvise if necessary.
“We are dealing with children and that’s why we have to go to large extents to make sure they are very safe when they are with us,” he says.
Hassan’s statements echo the huge responsibility he and his colleagues shoulder since children as young as five take the bus to school everyday.
“The biggest challenge for us is their security. From the time we pick them up from their parents and entrust them back safely, we have to exert the utmost care. During winters, it is rather dark when we pick them up from their homes. “Parents rely on us to take care of their children and we have to live up to their expectations,” adds the conductor foreman.
Despite the strong presence of youngsters in his life, Hassan, like any other expatriate away from family, misses home. “I do feel bad that I am missing out on the childhood of my daughter and new-born son.
“But this is the harsh reality of life and if I have to provide for their livelihood and importantly education, I have to be away from them and work hard. I cannot afford to bring them here since I have to live within my means,” he says.
The hard-working, dedicated individual also dreams of going home one day, when his children and family are well-settled.
“I would like to go back to my motherland and probably start my own business. When my family’s situation improves, I shall pack up and leave,” says Hassan.
Preeti Kannan