Md Sohanur Rahman Sohan

It goes without saying that most of our rural primary school are in bad shape and the teachers who are responsible to educate these students are not well trained. Recently, as a volunteer, We had the opportunity to visit a school situated in Rayerbazar which is run by the “JAAGO Foundation”.

JAAGO Foundation currently has 13 schools spread all over Bangladesh, catering free of cost to the education needs of 2,500 underprivileged children. Save the Children in Bangladesh in partnership with JAAGO and The Daily Star, has organized a month long youth-led campaign called “Bridging the Gap” as a part of its ongoing campaign – Every Last Child. We were some lucky volunteers who were selected for this campaign. From the first step we land into the JAAGO School’s premises, we started to get a positive vibes about it. For security purpose, we need to register our name to enter into the school. We inspect the classrooms, personal hygiene facilities, library and playground. Everything was up to the mark and well maintained. “Being in a classroom with access of resources positively affects children’s mental health. The good condition is the reason that parents don’t hesitate to send their kids in here,” said Abir, a teacher of “JAAGO School”.

The most important thing to be noted that the children were learning in a friendly environment inside “JAAGO School”. In our country, a well number of teachers doesn’t think twice to punish a student physically. But the good news is that the situation is changing but in a slow rate. We saw some cheerful students were playing in the playground. Nearby, a lonely soul was sitting alone watching them playing. Something was not right about her. Her dazzling black eyes was searching for a place to hide herself. We couldn’t stop ourselves to meet her and find out the reasons behind her gloomy face. We sat beside her. She felt nothing of our presence around her. We start the conversation asking her name. She looked down and replied indistinctly as she was so weak that words couldn’t come out from her mouth. We asked her again. This time, she added some force to her vocal cords and we heard her name is “Humaira”. We introduce ourselves to her.We tried to engage her through few amiable questions.We learn that she studies in nursery class and she is 7 years old.We also learn that her favorite TV show is “Meena” which is a South Asian children’s TV show,created by UNICEF. Humaira started to feel comfortable with us.To know more about her, we decide that we will visit her home.Humaira guided us to her home.She lives in a slum at Rayerbazar.The slum represents typical overcrowded,unhygenic and nasty slums of Dhaka city.When we reached there, her parents was not there. Her 15 years old disabled elder brother was sleeping in the bed. One hour later, her mom came back home from work. She is a single mom of 5 children. Humaira’s mom had her first child when she was fourteen.She earns hardly eight thousand taka to support her family. Humaira is the only daughter of her parents. Among her siblings, she is the only one who goes to school. We met the siblings of humaira. All of them were affected by malnutrition. When her mom is not at home, Humaira took care of her younger brother and later we found out,he was the reason behind humaira’s gloomy face.

Despite of all the financial and family crisis,Humaira managed to continue her study and doing well. From her mother,we came to know that humaira wants to become a doctor. Wow! what a strong determined little girl she is !Indeed,she is a inspiration for all of us. We know that this little optimistic girl will chase her dream to the end but alone she can’t overcome all the obstacles of her road towards glory. Thanks to JAAGO Foundation and “Save The Children”.Why? because they are the reason that children like Humaira can dream Big.But the matter of fact is that only a very few children of our country get the opportunity to nurture their dream with the help of these types of “volunteer organization” and NGO’s.It is the responsibility for all of us,including the government, the policy maker and the civil society of our country to make Bangladesh a better place for our children through ensuring all the basic rights.

We believe that, no child should be excluded from the opportunity to survive and learn. But the reality is millions of children in Bangladesh are being left behind simply because of who they are and where they live. To sum up, if we can make sure all the excluded children in Bangladesh have access to life-saving healthcare and quality education, only then we can hope for a prosperous and better Bangladesh.