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<\/span><\/p>\nBegum says the family investigated home health care services to take care of her father but found little options outside of skilled nursing and nursing homes \u2014 both options which either were expensive or outside cultural norms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did hear about programs that were outside of our community, nursing home and skilled nursing. We didn’t want to put our father in there. For that reason, my mother took him home [to Bangladesh] so relatives over there can look after him,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the lack of culturally competent options and Bangla-speaking home health care providers in Metro Detroit inspired Begum to research and open her own business, Mersiha Homecare Services LLC, in 2014. This was the year when her daughter Mersiha was born, which her business is named after, and months shy of her father\u2019s passing. She got her credentials and license right before her daughter was born.<\/p>\n
Her services help caregivers, whether it’s family members, a neighbor, or someone hired by Begum to care for people who are elderly, disabled, or people with special needs. They help with tasks around the house and everyday daily activities: grooming, cleaning, bathing, and dispensing medications. Caregivers go through background checks and must follow state and federal guidelines for caregiving.<\/p>\n
Losing her father pushed her to give back to the Bangladeshi community, where she saw a need. She says helping her parents and people her parents\u2019 age is something she\u2019s grown up with. \u201cWhen I noticed my father was sick there wasn\u2019t anyone here to look after him besides my mom who was sick herself. There weren\u2019t a lot of options that were out there within our community,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs kids we have become their interpreter [and] translator from such a young age, filling out their forms, helping them out, and talking for them. That has become so natural to me. It has become a part of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time when she opened, she says there was only one other entity doing similar work. Her business has grown from a home office to a full-fledged business with three part-time paid employees. After she outgrew the home office, she started off with renting spaces within a nonprofit organization in Hamtramck a couple days a week and later purchased and renovated a former flower shop into her full-time office on Conant Street in Hamtramck. Now six years in, she hopes to expand her program to include services to other niche populations, like mothers who need maternal health services.<\/p>\n She says being a woman entrepreneur in a city where many of the businesses are owned by Bengali men “breaks cultural bias. They expect us to be at home looking after the kids, in the kitchen\u2026 and here I am being a female and I am out there and I have opened a place of business that\u2019s an office that\u2019s open to the public,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Begum, 34, who lives in Sterling Heights, says first-generation kids are trying different things compared to their parents. \u201cNow the newer generations are going into more things than our fathers and mothers went into,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe came from hardworking families to strive for better,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Begum says she had a hard time breaking through to community members in Metro Detroit, who eventually came around due to the services she provides by being able to communicate in the same language and knowing firsthand what a difference her services would provide.<\/p>\n \u201cIt comes to knowing how my own Bangladeshi people\u2026communication with them is huge,\u201d she said. \u201cFemales, we are able to do this job and just as\u2026 or if not better,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cI love talking and getting to know people.\u201d<\/p>\n She says the best part of the job is getting the prayers and well wishes from those she serves.<\/p>\n \u201cThe aunties and the uncles, they will call and just say, \u2018Hey I\u2019m praying for you.\u2019 I\u2019m making dua for you. That\u2019s such a blessing to hear that. That fills my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.modeldmedia.com\/FilterD\/images\/mddulamiah.jpg\")
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