Beginning Of New School Year
School, a place filled with happiness, joy, learning of new things, making new friends and most importantly exploring the world through the eyes of the teacher. The beginning of a new year in school is always very exciting for students as it is a new beginning for them with new teachers, books and more knowledge. On August 18th, 2014 a new academic year started at JAAGO School and all the newly enrolled 400 students were welcomed with a chocolate and a balloon. In these seven years of journey, JAAGO Foundation has reached up to 1600 students and has the vision to increase the students’ base in the near future.
Inauguration of Madaripur School
In August, 2014 at Ukil Para in Shahid Surjo Sarak, Madaripur, JAAGO Foundation held the inaugural program of their 8th school branch. It was not only a very happy moment for the JAAGO family but also for the children of Madaripur. They now have the platform to achieve their dream with the unconditional support from Grameenphone, Agni System and from an ardent well – wisher of JAAGO Foundation Ms. Sayema Zerin who has donated the land for the school and raised the fund for the school building aswell. Even though Ms. Saima Zerin is a dentist by profession she is an artist at her soul. He donated fund for the school building was raised by selling her paintings. JAAGO Foundation has been able to spread their web in the corners of Bangladesh.
World Environment Day
On World Environment Day JAAGO students watched a video clip (documentary/animation) that helped them to understand the effect of Global Warming and the significance of World Environment Day. After the video the teachers explained/interpreted the effect we have on Environment with our careless actions. Followed by this video session the students drew pictures that reflected their creativity and understanding of the outcomes.
Visit of American Ambassador
JAAGO Foundation has embarked its journey on 2007 and reached remarkable heights in these 7 years. To support and inaugurate two class rooms, one sewing center and the VBD (write the full form) idea generating zone on June, 30 2014 His Excellency Dan Mozena his better half Grace Mozena , Hasan Ahmed, Chairman Popular Life Insurance Company Ltd and Engr. M Abu Taher, Chairman Fortuna Group visited JAAGO Foundation’s Rayer Bazar Branch.
After the inauguration, His Excellency spent a quality time with the JAAGO family and even had a chat with the students. Being very impressed with JAAGO Foundation His Excellency said, ‘I am here for I believe in the philosophy of JAAGO. Great Nations do not happen by accident. It happens when you build it or construct it with your own hands. I see the potential of JAAGO’s greatness and I want you to build, build, build and make it greater!’
Thank you so much!
That is all we want to say to our sponsors! Without you we could not get this far. We are proud of your wonderful contribution as much as we are proud of our kids! We would love to have you with us along this journey. Connect with us any way you want. You can come to our place and spend some wonderful moments with these innocent children. You can also help them out through sponsoring their education. Thank you again for being with us through thick and thin.
The beneficiaries, as they do not have much experience, needed to be trained on how to handle the children coming from disadvantaged background. The children, most of the time is not aware of the rules and means of respect that they should pay to the elderly, in this case the teachers. As a result it becomes quite challenging for the teachers to handle the students properly. So if they could be engaged and ensured that they remained on tasks throughout the classes then the entire classes would be much productive.
In order to achieve this some training sessions were arranged for the teachers of the different branches of JAAGO Foundation which were facilitated to equip the teachers with all the different techniques, tools and knowledge regarding teaching our children. In order to do this we have facilitated various training sessions. A glimpse of them is given below:
1. Training on Professional Development of Teachers provided by SPEED (Services for Professional Education and Enterprise Development)
SPEED is an adult education and training center based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Since starting operations in 2005, we have developed a reputation for offering excellent training programs of an international-standard for working professionals.
The teachers of many different branches were imparted a training for eight days. The topics contained the following:
Classroom Management and Control in Classrooms
Strategies for Classroom Management
Understanding how to increase discipline and why behaviors of our children can get disrupted
Motivating children in the classroom
How to praise children so as to motivate them
Professionalism
Characteristics of an Ideal Teacher
Creating a Positive Learning Experience
Methods of Assessing the Learners
Accomplishments
After conducting the training sessions we have found that the teachers have become more motivated in conducting the classes as they now know how to engage the students in the classes. This is because most of the teachers were new in the field of teaching and they were interested to teach in order to help in the kid’s development and to ensure a bright future. So as they got the opportunity to learn about the methods of motivating the children, managing large classrooms, motivating learners coming from a disadvantaged background and engaging them in the classroom, managing discipline in the classrooms consisting of kids who are prone to make disruptions in the classes, assessing the learners throughout the sessions, and so on.
2. Introductory Teachers Development Workshop by JAAGO Trainer
This was conducted in order to ensure that our teachers are well able to get used to the minimal resources that we deal with in order to impart education to our children and how to teach in environments which are not suitable enough for the kids’ education as they are in the middle of slums and less hygienic areas.
Accomplishments
After the training was conducted it was observed that the teachers developed their attitude towards teaching the kids. They were feeling much better about teaching in general as they could overcome many of the challenges such as lack of proper learning environment, limitation of resources, and so on. They could now apply better time management skills within the short span of time.
3. Training on Digital Conduction of Classes by JAAGO Trainer
As Online teaching method is something new and it is taking place the first time in Bangladesh it is so important that the teachers who are conducting the class using this method knows all the procedures and techniques to make this teaching method successful.
Accomplishments:
The teachers were trained on how to conduct the classes digitally. After getting this training the teachers were now more capable of utilizing the technology for teaching. Such development helped in the proper application of the software Webex that helped JAAGO to implement the Online Schooling Program. After this took place the learners were more engaged in the learning process.
Recently celebrating our seven year anniversary, we are deeply proud of the progress that JAAGO Foundation has made in building a Bangladesh with equal opportunities for all. Our central focus has been on providing international standard education to the nation's most impoverished children, and beginning with one room and 17 kids, it is only owing to the generosity and continued support of our donors that we have made such meaningful, tangible progress, now with eight successful schools countrywide, and 1400 students.
What's been going on?
So far this year, our students have been flourishing both academically and creatively: thank you for your continued help in shaping young minds.
Passing with flying colours
From a young age, many children living below the poverty line are forced to accept a fate of hunger, exploitation and destitution, without challenges, dreams, or hope. With JAAGO School, the fabric of their future is changing. We recently held the graduation ceremony for our Primary Education Completion exams, for which our 29 students received outstanding results: not only did they achieve a 100% pass rate, but the majority also scored the equivalent of an A+.
In other wonderful news, our 80 sharp minded kindergarten kids have progressed from KG2 Pre-Primary to Primary Class 1, through passing our internal assessments – a huge well done!
Green activities for World Environment Day
On Thursday 5th June, JAAGO students across Bangladesh celebrated World Environment Day by watching a documentary to raise awareness of issues such as global warming and the importance of looking after our planet.
Following this, our kids got creative and drew beautiful pictures to show what they had learnt and express their care for the environment. “Brick fields pollute our environment - plant trees and save our environment!” said Rony from class 2, holding up his colourful drawing to show the effects of pollution.
Photography fun
Back in February, we were honoured to be visited by professional photojournalist Prito Reza, who dedicated his valuable time to organising a workshop for JAAGO children, during which they learnt about the art of photography. After the session, they had the opportunity to shoot some snaps themselves, and got to experience fun from both sides of the lens.
Next Steps
It is a continual pleasure to witness these young minds germinating; to provide those who have been caught up in the tide of poverty an opportunity to escape the life they were born into, and capitalise on their dreams. Through the power of education, we are paving the way for our young generation to build a better Bangladesh.
We have come a long way, but our ambitions are high: we aspire to establish a school in each of Bangladesh's 64 districts, eradicating the country's staggering 43% illiteracy rate and creating a brighter, more prosperous future for the nation's most deprived kids.
Child Welfare Department Testimonial:
Our current activities still require a great deal of support. Running the only free-of-cost English medium schools in Bangladesh, we are an invaluable educational resource to children from disadvantaged families. Through our Sponsor a Child program, we connect our children with a guardian sponsor; a kind hearted individual from outside their family who will act as a role model and mentor throughout their education.
Relationship Officer Nayeem Arefin manages these relationships and facilitates correspondence between children and sponsors:
“I deal with the queries, forward their messages such as letters and gifts to the kids, arrange online or real-life tête–à–tête between the kids and sponsors, keep a watchful eye on each student's academic and moral progress, and relay the student's academic or health update to the sponsor. At JAAGO, the sponsors bring their hope, the kids come with their bright eyes flaunting their ambitions, and we bring our work to make our rebellious dream a reality - to build an illiteracy free Bangladesh by educating the impoverished children who don't have access to education.”
