Orphanage and School for Homeless Children

Help children escape a life of poverty and misery

VISION

• To see a world where orphans are cared for and educated to the highest standards of academic excellence.

• Arm the children living in poverty with education.

• Teach them to lay claim to the basic human rights that they are greatly deprived of.

• Help them as they fight to claim their status as humans in a developing society.

OBJECTIVES

• To provide orphans with education

• To increase the life chances of orphans

• To enable the children to lead productive and dignified lives

This project has been initiated in collaboration with Bangladesh based stakeholders with deep local knowledge, extensive community involvement and experience in youth education.

The Project

500 ultra poor and orphaned children, who had no access to education before, will attain an inclusive and quality education at a newly built community school and accommodation facility.

Each class at the school will follow the government-approved curriculum for literacy, writing, maths and science. The students will be provided school uniforms and book bags, giving them a sense of pride and belonging.

Alongside crucial literacy and numeracy education, emphasis will be placed upon creative expression and play, with daily time assigned for art, dance or group play. Teachers will be trained to encourage students to think critically about their circumstances and how to seek positive outcomes. Children will be encouraged to express their views and represent the views of their peers through Child Councils.

The local community will also be actively engaged in the school’s operation.

The students of the school will receive free food every day and fortnightly health checkups.

The facility will have a modern computer laboratory with internet, where the children will be able to learn computer skills.

There will be a modern recreational area with television.

Major Component/Activities

• Selection of adequate location, construction and equipment of the school and accommodation facility.
• Official inauguration of the school in the presence of representatives of public education authorities.
• Selection and training of teachers and staff.
• Selection of students, regular operation of the facility.
• Organising fortnightly medical camps for students
• Provision of food for the students
• Support creative learning process (e.g. cultural and sport event, lending of books).
• Continuous dialogue of teachers with relevant stakeholders, setting up School-Management Committee.
• Organizing annual roundtables on primary education with representatives of government and civil society.

Timeline and Budget

The estimated costs of this project, including acquisition of the land, construction of the building, furnishing, school materials, transport and teacher training over a period of 3 years is in excess of $ 200,000 USD.

We don't anticipate collecting the entire amount via this platform. This campaign is a start-up to our project.

Yours donations will make a difference.

Poverty in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the world’s poorest and most densely populated countries. Poverty in Bangladesh is deep and widespread: almost half the population lives on less than $1 a day. According to UNICEF, 26.5 million Bangladeshi children live below the national poverty line, 33 million below the international poverty line.

For decades, poverty in Bangladesh was more concentrated than any other place in the world. What does it mean? Simply that the country has one of the highest percentage of poor people per square mile.

Bangladesh is far from reaching its primary education targets.

Eighty-five percent of the twenty million primary school age children in Bangladesh are enrolled in school. This means that 3 million children are not even enrolled.

Enrolment is only the first part of the challenge. Many children do not attend regularly, and one third of the children in school today – 7 million children – will drop-out before completing primary level education.

Hunger and poverty are the biggest impediments to school attendance. Education is unlikely to be a high priority of parents who struggle to ensure that their families have enough food every day. This problem has been exacerbated by high food prices. As a result, 20 percent of poor families have pulled their children out of school.

Even if children are able to attend school they are often unable to concentrate on their lessons or too ill to study. Micro-nutrient deficiencies, which affect 93 percent of primary school children in poor areas of Bangladesh, seriously affect a child’s ability to learn. Deficiencies in iron, iodine and vitamin A cause growth retardation, brain damage, learning disabilities and visual impairment.

A large proportion of the next generation are thus being condemned to continued poverty.

Homeless and Street Children

Defining ‘street children’ is a difficult task - made harder by the many uncertainties surrounding the term. The term ‘street children’ is usually applied to children under the age of 18, who either live or make a living on the streets. Some may have family connections, but others are simply abandoned or choose to run away from home, often due to domestic violence.

Street children are highly concentrated all over Bangladesh – especially in Dhaka city. Regardless of their location, they face hardships and exploitation. Street children are generally deprived of their right to education and have little or no access to the formal education system. The majority of them are illiterate and have either never been enrolled, or have dropped out of the formal education system.

The lack of education and educational opportunities makes such children particularly vulnerable to trafficking, child labour, sexual abuse, exposure to HIV/AIDS and other STIs, and police violence. These children remain one of the most overlooked and vulnerable groups of children.

Education gives children a chance to have a better future. In school, they learn to think independently, make their own choices and stand up for themselves. As a result, they are no longer so susceptible to abuse by others.

About Us

Our activities focus around assisting vulnerable children in society, lifting them out of poverty and providing them with the necessities to live a meaningful existence.

We believe all children deserve to have an education, a chance just to be children and to have fun.

We want all the children in our care to feel part of a global community and instil within them the values of tolerance, integrity and hard work. Our aim is to achieve this within a caring and nurturing environment which will allow children to develop valuable life skills as well as attain academic excellence.

MISSION

• Work alongside extremely poor children in Bangladesh, and create a route for them to join formal school.
• Provide quality education to orphans and the most vulnerable children in society.

In countries like Bangladesh where both parents are often required to work in order to make ends meet, the loss of one parent (especially the father) can plunge any remaining children into severe hardship as well as significantly increase the risk of them being drawn in to child labour, sexual exploitation, or worse. We want to assist as many vulnerable orphans and children as possible.

To understand how a system works, you have to be a part of the system. We believe in this age old saying, and when we approach a community to help it develop, we start with a blank slate.

We don’t go to a community with a preconceived solution; rather we research the nature, strategic dimension and extent of the problems faced by the community, involving community members at each and every stage of the process.

Once that is done, we discuss with the community on how to efficiently tackle these problems using the limited resources of the community, and we seek innovative solutions that we can implement with the community’s active support.

In all cases the solutions are tailored to the situation; indeed, the same problem may be solved in two different ways in two different locations.

We need the support of donors worldwide to make our work possible – without you, we are nothing. Please continue to support us with your donations so that together we can make a difference.

http://www.beaconofinspiration.org/

100% of all the donations will be used towards establishing the orphanage and school in Bangladesh.