“We want to host you, invite you over to have some rice and vegetables with us.”

Brimming with excitement over finally having a permanent roof over her head, a home she can call her own, this is how the elderly Jahera Begum wanted to share the unadulterated joy with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina over a humble meal.

“My three daughters and a son, my physically challenged husband, and I used to live on the bank of a canal,” Jahera said.

Read: PM takes responsibility of visually impaired Lily Begum’s treatment

“Without a roof over our head, whenever there was rain or storm, we had to endure hell. My husband is no longer employable; the entire family survives on my income. As we were homeless, people looked down on us. We were treated like outcasts,” she recounted.

With tears rolling down her face, Jahera thanked the PM for the house given to her under the Ashrayan-2 project.

This is Jahera’s first house.

On Wednesday, 22,101 more people became beneficiaries of the project after PM Hasina declared another 12 districts and 123 upazilas free of homeless and landless people.

Read: 90-year-old Pabna woman grateful to PM Hasina for providing her a home

“I am now a proud owner of a house with two rooms and it’s a blessing. I never thought I’d be a homeowner in this lifetime.”

For Abdur Rahim, father of four daughters, who earns a living pulling rickshaw-vans, life now has a new meaning with the new home.

“We used to stay at the base of a bridge and were at the mercy of weather,” he recalled.

Read: PM declares 12 districts, 123 upazilas free of homeless people

“What you have given us is surely going to change the course of our lives. We are grateful to your motherly gesture,” Rahim thanked PM Hasina.

The Ashrayan project has provided land and homes to thousands of disadvantaged people since the celebration of ‘Mujib Year’ marking the 100th birth anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during 2020-21.