I am Rezoana Arefine. I was born in Chittagong surrounded by mountains and the sea. From my childhood, I was addicted to traveling in the mountains and the sea. This situation has given way to the mountains of my greed!
I have never faced gender discrimination in my family. This positive aspect has helped me to dream in life.
Since my school life, I have been working on extracurricular activities in between my studies. From school life, writing articles in the newspaper, recitations, and presentations are done by me. With that, I started my work as a vocal artist on national radio and a presenter on national television. Not only that, I am involved as an active recitalist. I learned photography in the meantime and started street photography because I am addicted to walking in the mountains. Even after all this, I never stopped reading books. As I love to read books, I am also involved in book editing. Apart from studies and extracurricular activities, I work as an audiologist for the visually impaired. I have an organization for this named 'Swapno Puroner Sarothy'.
How did I come to the world of snakes? Say so this time! I used to fear snakes and art like death. But in 2018, I felt that this time was the time to conquer this fear. After that, I started studying snakes in between studying zoology and started to overcome fear. Then it came to mind to raise public awareness about snakes by doing calligraphy on the streets. Thus conquering the fear of snakes and art.
In 2022, I started a foundation called the Kundali Foundation to conserve snakes and reduce human deaths from snakebite. There are 495 upazilas in all of Bangladesh. I visited these 495 upazila hospitals, took information, and put posters on them. I used to visit snakebite victims homes and conduct public awareness programs on snake and snakebite management. Not just snakes; I am also working on tiger-man conflict, scorpion bite, and spider bite. I have been running this completely on my own.
Needless to say, me and snakes are inextricably linked because my birthday and World Snake Day are on the same day. I want to spend my life focusing on snake-related research. I think every animal on earth has the right to live naturally. Let's build a beautiful world for everyone.
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Arefine, welcome to WildHub. A good work you're doing with the awareness on snakes, could you share people's responses to calligraphy on snakes, were you able to measure the impact or any feedback mechanism on how others transformed their view on snakes through your advocacy?
Thank you for your warm regards.
Yes, of course. In the first stage a fearful situation is created among the people and I approach them seeing their condition. Then start telling them about non-venomous snakes like rat snake, trinket snake, ornate flying snake, bronzeback tree snake etc. Then they become stable and start asking questions on their own and I answer them. Eventually, i also distribute leaflet about snakebite management guidelines, too. As a result they later contact me for any snake related work and I help them. I have recorded many videos about their reaction.
Thank you Arefine, you're doing a great job.
A warm welcome to WildHub Rezoana! Lovely to have you join us and thanks for sharing about your background, what inspires you and about your work.
What kind of opportunities (e.g. knowledge, connections) are you looking for within our community?
There are several snake experts in WildHub who have published some of their lessons learned, such as @Shaleen Attre who published "Living with snakes: strengthening co-existence amid life and death", @Romulus Whitaker who shared an update on his work with snakes in India last year and @Loretta Andrade shared about Indian Snakes app here. We also have our member @Doreen Beatrice Kakai in Uganda who is the Operations Manager for Snakes Uganda Limited. If you enter "snake" in the above search bar, you may also come across members who are working with snakes in your geographical area.
I would recommend having a look at our upcoming WildHub socials (information here ) - it's a great way of sharing knowledge and getting to know each other in our WildHub community.
Thanks for your informative comments. I consider myself a learner all the time so I love to learn all the time. On the other hand, as a student of Zoology , I also want to expand my network. As we all work with wildlife, increased networking is also important. I want to write about snakes and also want to connect with herpetologist too. Thanks again, for the information. I am definitely willing to make various written, informative videos on snakes.
Take warm regards❤️
Thanks for sharing Rezoana, wonderful to read!