The Dhaka Project

Busy day today started by a visit to the nursery with all those cute chicks. Each time it's pure joy to see their smily face when they see us. That's definitely the best way to start a day! Then we went to the office located in the school were the registration of the new students was happening.

TDP has its own school for 150 children and sponsorises 491 others to attend local schools. Maria found out that the level of education was really different so she decided to bring back the sponsored kids in TDP school. Then, pushing the reflexion further, she decided to give up the 100% bangladeshi curriculum for an international one. Firoz, our Education expert, has decided that we will follow the Cambrige curriculum adapted to Bangladesh.
But none of the children are on the same level. So, as the official scholar year is starting from July, they have decided to dedicate the 5 coming months to put all the children of what Firoz calls an Education Fast Track. It means that each child will be evaluated and pushed collectivaly and invividually if necessary in order to be ready for July.

This Education world is totally new for me and I realise how it can be an extremely powerful weapon against poverty. Here, families are begging us to take their children as they know it's the only path to escape from their misery. Yesterday for example, we had a father coming to the school with his daughter. He said she wanted to go to school but as she is working in a garment factory (she is 13 years old), he wanted us to compensate the income of the family. It seems that the mother has some blood pressure problems and the father, selling vegetables on the market, cannot sustain alone the family. We told the father we wanted to meet the mother to check her health with our doctor in order to give her a treatment. Then she would be able to work from home with a sewing machine replacing the daughter's income. Let's see what will happen!

This example Showcases quite well what we believe in. We could have told the father that we will pay the family in order to have the daughter in school but we don't believe in this way. We want to teach them how to manage their own life, make their own money and that's the principal task I have decided to dedicate myself.