Educare for 150 underprivileged children

Activitiy Report

Uttaran with the help of crowd funding gathered through the platform GlobalGiving and the local community have helped 40 students from a primary school named Shishutirtho. These students belonged from Dalit families. Dalit are socially excluded minority communities who are considered untouchable in the Indian subcontinent. They are politically, socially and financially excluded and thus often they fail to ensure quality education for their children. In lot of schools and social institutions they are treated differently and sometimes forced to sit in the back benches. Thus Dalit children stop going to school at a very early age. In order to ensure, quality education for Dalit students, Uttaran have convinced the Shishutirtho primary school (non-government) to waive their tuition fees completely. With the money gathered through GlobalGiving and local people, Uttaran have provided 40 Dalit students with school dress, shoes, geometry Box and 2 exercise copies. These items were distributed in presence of School Management Committee and Guardians. With these new items the students mentioned that now they have new dresses just like everyone else in their classroom and their friends are treating them equally. The School Principal expressed her Gratitude to everyone who has donated for this noble cause from within and beyond the borders of Bangladesh. She has also mentioned that the school will provide free transport for these students as well. 

At the Samakal Maddhyamik Biddyapit, Uttaran with the help of GlobalGiving and the local people previously provided school dress for 140 students and education materials for another 68 students. This term the school has provided dress for 10 more students and education materials for another 22 students. These students belong from very poor families. The Headmaster of the school mentioned that these support have helped to reduce the dropout rate particularly for female students who belong from very poor families and have encouraged them to enhance their performance.

The project after discussing with the two school management committees, teachers and guardians have decided the scale up the effort for local crowd funding and has asked uttaran to do the same with GlobalGiving. In the coming winter the school would like to distribute one new set of school dress and sweater among the targeted students. 

Case Study 

"I was reading in a different school till last year, where children from Dalit ethnicity were made to sit in the last benches. The teacher would sometime beat us for no reasons. I am just 8 years old and it did not take me long to understand the teacher does not like us and she thinks that we are dirty and have no rights to sit in the same school with other students. I decided not to go to school anymore and started to fake stomach ache every day. When my other asked me I told her what happened and she said that I do not have to go there anymore. Then a neighbour of mine told me that I can always to go to this school where I will not be treated differently. But the school is non-government and had higher salaries. I told my parents, that I wanted to go there but being just a day labour and an odd handcrafter my father could not afford such high fees. My friend told my problem to the school. and then one day the principal asked my parents to come over. Here she told us that I can start reading in this school for free and the school will also provide transport for me. Recently the school gave us a pair of new school dress and a pair of school shoes. I also received 2 exercise copies and a geometry box. My dream is to become a politician who will work to reduce the discrimination faced by Dalit community. I sincerely am grateful to my school who makes me feel that I am also a part of larger community in Bangladesh."