Built from one family's fear. Driven by every family after.
This is why Make My Hope exists — told the way it happened, not the way a charity brochure usually tells it.
Shehzin's heart
My name is Shuzan Mahamud. My daughter, Shehzin Mehek Alisha, was born with a congenital heart defect — a hole in her heart that no parent is ever prepared to hear about. I remember the exact feeling of sitting across from a doctor, hearing words like "septal defect" and "surgery" for the first time, and having absolutely no idea what to do next.
There was no single place that told me, step by step, what a family in Bangladesh is supposed to do when their baby is born with a broken heart. Which hospital to trust. What an echocardiogram actually shows. Whether treatment abroad was even necessary, and if it was, how an ordinary family is supposed to arrange a passport, a medical visa, a hospital appointment, and the money — all at once, while also just trying to keep their child alive.
In 2022, we took Shehzin to Narayana Health in Bangalore — the hospital network founded by Dr. Devi Shetty, known worldwide for pediatric cardiac care — and she had open-heart surgery there. Today, she is a normal, active child. Most days, you would never guess what her first year of life looked like.
Why that wasn't the end of the story
We were fortunate. We had a way to get Shehzin the care she needed. Not every family does.
Since then, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the parents who get the same diagnosis and have nowhere to turn — no guidance, no savings, no idea that their child's condition is often treatable if they can just reach the right hospital in time.
I don't want anyone to carry the fear I carried simply because they didn't know where to look. That's the entire reason Make My Hope exists: not as a charity brand, but as the resource I wish someone had handed me on the day I heard Shehzin's diagnosis.
Make My Hope is a personal initiative — started and still largely run by our own family — that is growing, deliberately and honestly, toward becoming a registered foundation. We would rather grow slowly and stay transparent than promise more than we can prove.
What we believe
Guidance before money
A family that understands what's happening to their child can make better decisions than one that is only handed a bank account number.
Full transparency
Every case we raise money for is a real, named child with real documents on file. We would rather show one verified case honestly than a hundred vague ones.
Dignity, not pity
These families aren't statistics. We tell their stories the way we would want our own told.
Meet the child we're helping right now
Rafiya Sheikh is a one-year-old girl from Jhenaidah with a critical, correctable heart defect — and an appointment in Bangalore she may not reach without help.
Read Rafiya's Case