DoPeace.org - DOPS Saidpur

আমাদের সুযোগ্য পরিবেশ ও জলবায়ু বিষয়ক উপদেষ্টা মহোদয়ে একান্ত চিন্তায় ভাড়ারদহ জীব বৈচিত্র্য এলাকায় পরিদশর্ন এডিসি মহোদয় রাজস্ব,পানি উন্নয়ন বোর্ডের কমর্কতা পরিবেশ অধিদপ্তরের, মৎস্য, প্রাণিসম্পদঅধিদপ্তরের, বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের অধ্যাপক সহ বেলা পক্ষে আমার সুযোগও হয়,আমাদের চাওয়া উপদেষ্টার চাওয়া যেন সাথর্ক হয়

Will we let 250,000 Rohingya Muslim Children Suffer?

Will we let 250,000 Rohingya Muslim Children Suffer?

RBNS

Dear NGO partners, staff, teachers, and the supporters:

DoPeace is proud of your commitment to our mission to educate small children in the slums. Our wide range of supporters would like to hear directly from each of the DoPeace members about their daily activities. Please click the following links and like the pages so you can the posts from each other and from our supporters. Thank you.

https://www.facebook.com/DoPeaceUSA/
https://www.facebook.com/DoPeaceMohammadpur/
https://www.facebook.com/dopeacerangpur/
https://www.facebook.com/dopeacemirpur/
https://www.facebook.com/dopeacesaidpur/
https://www.facebook.com/dopeacechittagong/
https://www.facebook.com/dopeacehouston/
https://www.facebook.com/DoPeaceBangladesh/
https://www.facebook.com/DoPeaceorg-RBNS-Saidpur-129567630983368/
https://www.facebook.com/DoPeaceorg-EAKOK-Mirpur-1818597541788422/
.org

Check out this link

World’s unique method of mass educating the poorest of the poor

Tens of thousands of children who have graduated from DoPeace learning centers in the last three years are in more than 100 preschools throughout Bangladesh.

The DoPeace model of solving the educational problem in the slums is already one of the worlds unique low-cost methods for rapid implementation on the mass scale. We enroll 10,000 poorest of the poor disadvantaged children into the DoPeace school system every year. This at a low-cost of $1 per child per month.

The quality of our preschool graduates is well known among the primary schools within the community. All of our eligibile graduates get rapid admission to grade one. Thus, we have avoided the cost of starting our own schools which will otherwise require millions of dollars.

Rapid and high quality of education for the masses-that is what our seven local NGOs and more than 100 teachers and staff are accomplishing - making the world a better place for the poorest of the poor children.

My 7th Visit to Bangladesh
Education in the Slums
Post 6: Debate with stakeholders


The room was packed with the parents, slum community leader, several key individuals of the camp, some of the invited teachers, and our Partner NGO. The words were already out and the concern of the community of high that DoPeace was thinking about changing the rules of engagement. The concern was valid. I was on the front line ready to make my argument.

It was not antagonistic, as we have developed some trust in the community over the last two years. We are serving over 1200 children in that community. A civic dialog was brewing, and I was there to defend my position.

As each one was introduced, they also started to put their questions out front. Are you now going to charge tuition for the services? Other schools provide not only free education, but they also provide uniforms and food. We are here because we can’t afford to go to proper schools, and this is convenient. We cannot find schools as they have very limited enrollment. Do you understand that we are poor people and we struggle to make our ends meet? We appreciate what you are doing, but you are now disengaging yourself from us. Why can’t you continue the way it is going, as we are very happy the way it is?

I listened to them intently, trying very hard what they are really saying. I collected the questions in my mind, nodding all the time they are responding intermittently just to clarify their questions. The community leader, with whom I have quite close relationship, tried to intervene occasionally to blunt of sugarcoat the points being made, but I gently asked him to backoff. My NGOs were sitting over next to me and wondering what is going to happen.

This is not the first time, I had engaged the slum community in civic dialog. I did it twice this week, before I ended up with this community.

I started talking to them, and there was a pin drop silence.

My Board of Directors (I used much simpler language and not the lingo) wants to know if the community really wants to educate their children?

A silly question, perhaps. Of course, they want their children to get educated. Why else they are there?

My Board of Directors wants the proof, I emphasized. I pointed out that there were three nonprofit organizations before, some of them quite flush with money. They had schools in the community, and they are all long gone. So, eventually, we will go away as well.

They looked at me, bewildered. Why would you go away and betray us, like others?
Let me tell you a simple reason, I said. If I am dead today, this enterprise is going end. But there could be other reasons.

They were aghast and there were sympathetic murmurs in the room. We want a long-life for you, someone said loudly, and there were resounding agreement.

I laughed. I do not have any plans to die that quickly, I said, but I am trying to make a point, as anything can happen and it is a risky position to depend o me or any other organization 100%.

You have to be a partner in this endeavor and make sure that the schools continue in perpetuity, I said. You are solely responsible to educate your children, and for the last 40 years you have not taken any steps whatsoever, I was a little dramatic. You have been walking around these neighborhoods for years, you see the children on the streets, and you never got together to seriously plan for their education on your own.

But we do not have any money for that, said one women.

In this community of 15,000 people, I am sure that many of them can contribute one Taka per month towards the community fund for education, I replied. Have any of you contributed one Taka in the last 40 years for education? I raised my voice a little, looking at the leader and the two businessmen sitting there. There was silence.

That shows that you have no concerns about educating your children, and I cannot provide any proof to my Board of Directors to continue helping you, I was a little combative.

I want you to be engaged and stop asking for free stuff. I want partnership. I want joint venture. I kept going.

I saw them getting my point. I saw some of them relenting.

My 7th Visit to Bangladesh
Education in the Slums
Post 4: The cultural gap


As I discussed with the full house of 16 teachers from our NGO named EKOK, who is serving more than 1600 students in the 8 DoPeace learning centers in Mirpur, Dhaka, we stumbled into a topic that I have only discussed in passing in the past - the importance of education across the diversity of various ethnic groups.

Many of our learning centers are located among very poor Urdu-peaking Bihari population. The question of performance and attendance, which are our central theme of the outcome we closely monitor, hovered around a trend of students missing classes during their observance of festivities. The students have a tendency, with blessing from their parents, to miss the day before, on the day, and the day after the festivals. We are talking about the festivals that are not national holidays, or the holidays that our schools allows.


The issue may appear to be minor, but it cuts deep into the priority. Our teachers have approached the parents frequently to not allow the students to be absent, and have them attend the festivities after the class time, as most activities take place in the evenings anyhow.


This simply alludes to the complacency to education that frustrates us. Routinely missing classes leave the students behind, thus the teachers are unable to attain the target they are required to meet.

Teaching the community to become serious about educating their children has become the central issue in some of our DoPeace learning centers, and we are scrambling to find an acceptable solution.

My 7th Visit to Bangladesh
Education in the Slums
Post 3: The haunting past


I was at the Panel Discussion at Al-Falah in the Geneva Camp and at PBUS in Mirpur, both located in Dhaka. We have instituted this new format to discuss with the stakeholders that include local businesses, community leaders, parents, teachers, and the children. I was not sure where the panel discussion was going to go, but it turned out to be intense, as started the responsibilities and the ownership of educating the children.


It turned out to be an emotional roller coaster, as each person started to talk about their past, and how he or she ended up where they are now. The discussion spanned three generations -- their parents and their children. The parents had up to 5th grade education or less, except one who had a Bachelor's degree in Psychology.


Naseema (real names are being withheld for privacy) talked about her father. She got married and moved from their original residence in Dinajpur to Geneva Camp, where she is living for 7 years. She had this fond memory of their parents raising her and her 5 siblings and tried their best to educate them. Her father ran a small general store, but but that barely met their needs. Education was an additional expense they could not afford. She told how her father worked so hard and lovingly raised the family with the meager means, tears rolling her eyes. She stated that she loved her parents, which was a little startling as open verbalization of such emotions is rare in the culture. She is definitely committed to educating her two children as she realized by experience the value of it.


The one with totally grey hair, Abid, runs a small grocery store at the corner of the Geneva Camp, and the business is not as brisk as he would like to have because of the location little away from the foot traffic. During Ramadan the business has slowed down anyhow. His father was a skilled laborer in Nawabpur, near the center city. He had good income, but then he died, leaving the family without any income. He was the eldest so the responsibility of raising her 3 brothers and 2 sisters essentially fell on his shoulders. Then he got married and had several children. He worked hard all his life and now he has problems with his hands and the manual work has become very difficult. He was very sad that this children are all married, gone their own ways, and do not care about him. They don’t even check if there father has eaten food, he lamented.


The discussion on who is responsible for educating their children was illuminating. When I asked if Mr. Abid’s sons are not taking care of their own father, why someone from all the way from the USA should come in and take the responsibility of teaching their kids. I kept the argument simple, not discuss that there are other compelling reasons for us and the world to get involved. Finally it was settled that they are solely responsible for educating their children, and they welcome that we are there to help them in this pursuit. That has always been DoPeace’s position, and we keep articulating this on every occasion.


The community's contribution to educating their children, however, remained unresolved. .org

My 7th Visit to Bangladesh
Education in the Slums
Post 2: Opportunity for Whom?


After our meeting with the meeting with Al-Falah teachers and management, we started heading back through the meandering narrow streets of Geneva Camp. If you walk the streets for the first time, i promise it will be an unforgettable experience, reminiscent of a dilapidated world you may have seen in movies with piles of dirt, unbearable stench, open sewage next to the walkways, and overcrowded one room residences.


As I followed the staff, negotiating the muddy lane after the heavy rain, I saw a half-naked boy about four years old, standing on the doorway to his house. I paused for a moment and looked at him, our eyes locked for a moment. My mind jumped back when I was a kid of the same age in the same city.


If you take back the intervening time, I find very little difference between the two kids. I was not a gifted child by any stretch of imagination. The brain capability is definitely the same. It is a luck of the draw that dictated the difference. I cannot explain why I am not there in place of that kid.


Now let’s say a low-level philanthropist shows up in the slum at the moment from the USA (via resting in a 5-star hotel in Doha) and decides that he would provide for food and basic necessities for the child. Will it change anything for the child, besides being well fed and better clothed? The answer is No, as the destiny of the child will still not change much.


The child is still not provided something call the Opportunity - the opportunity to shape his life. While the visitor had this opportunity in the past. The difference is the opportunity of education.


There is no conceivable reason that, given the opportunity, this kid will not be able to complete, say, his engineering degree, find ways to get his Ph.D., and earn to have a respectable life. It is already done. I am there as a proof. The two from the same city.


May be this child could grow up to be a better philanthropist than I can ever be. Maybe he will educate thousands of children in the slums of the world. May be he will make the world a better place to live than I can imagine.


By providing the opportunity of education to this child, are we doing a favor to the child or are we creating opportunity for ourselves? Our future generations may live a better life because this child gets the education.

As I walked away from the child, I just wished that there will be a school for him to go to when he is of the age. I wish he will have the opportunity to rise up and save the world!

My 7th Visit to Bangladesh
Education in the Slums
Post 1: Long-term strategy


I should first talk about my long journey from Philadelphia to Dhaka - 24 hours door to door. Although I have done it several times, it has never gotten easier for me. At the expense of showing my vulnerability, I must admit that this is the most dreadful part of my trip. But I am glad that I have made it. Now my journey begins to oversee our seven local NGOs in Dhaka, Chittagong, Saidpur, and Rangpur, along with the 48 Learning Centers with more than 10,000 students.


I started this enterprise of bringing poor slum children from the streets to the one-room classrooms starting in 2014, not knowing what I am getting into. With some IT background, and experience in running post-secondary school called PITC Institute in Wyncote, PA, I was convinced that technology will solve the educational problem for the slum kids. I wanted them to leapfrog into the 21st century by making the resource available over the Internet.


I created online courses geared for the 5th grade curriculum in Bangladesh and made it available from my server in Pennsylvania. In 2014 I brought in 15 Chromebooks, set up the classrooms in Rangpur, Bangladesh, and trained my teachers to access and teach the courses using Moodle learning platform.

Alas, I quickly learned that it was an exercise in futility, for many reasons. I totally did not get it at the time. I will not go into the details of why that did not fly at this time, in the interest of not making this blog too long.


After many iterations of different approaches, I concluded that we need to be in the middle of the slum community, not on the outskirts of it, where the children below six years old will have difficulty reaching. I wanted to be one of them, and operate in the environment of their familiarity, so they are comfortable in going to these one-room classrooms.


The environment of the slums is difficult to comprehend, if you have not seen them, and particularly if you live in the USA or in any of the European countries. However, there are millions of small children who are extremely vulnerable, and they are the product of generations of neglect. Their forefathers have been unable to break the cycle of poverty and lack of education. Without education, the next generation of millions of children are going to be left behind as well, and the nightmare of extreme poverty will continue for us. Leaving millions of children behind has consequences, we as human beings cannot simply put the severe problem under the rug and hope that the problem will go away. We have paid the consequences of leaving the children behind, and it will escalate with geometric progressions if we do not do anything about it.


We need to have a long-term humane strategy and chip in the problem for the well-being of the mankind and for the peaceful co-existence that we so much desire.