Educare for 150 underprivileged children

The past 4 months were extremely challenging for us and the children we work with as the whole world suffers from the Coronavirus Pandemic. Our schools were closed since March 17^th and all the parents were guided to keep their students home and safe.

Since March due to the coronavirus lockdown the underprivileged students we support through the project were severely suffering. To make it worse on May 21^st a severe cyclone struck our project area and created massive damage to the people of Southwest Bangladesh. Many of our students were severely affected by the cyclone as their families are mostly dependent on day labor or small business who were already facing loss of income or unemployment due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Uttaran through its emergency relief programme came forward to support the students. 100 underprivileged children’s families were provided with food and corona preventive hygiene support. Furthermore, some portion of the donation through GlobalGiving this year will be allocated to ensure the underprivileged children we support have necessary Nutritious food, Soaps and Masks to stay healthy in this time of crisis.

As Uttaran is working to prevent the coronavirus crisis we decided to generate awareness among our student’s parents regarding the safety of their family during the pandemic. We also distributed corona preventive leaflet, mask and soap to all our students and their family.

Our kindergarten-Primary School Shishutirtho with requests from Parents started an innovative method of teaching to partially continue with children’s education. This is done without any internet facilities and by keeping everyone at their home. It was decided that the teachers will provide a month syllabus to their parents and will call all the student once every week to learn about their progress and solve the problems they were facing. A collaborative effort between the teachers and parents to keep the student’s mental health better. No students are forced to be a part of it and no grades will be provided on this, this is rather done to keep interacting with the children, keep them busy and mentally healthy. Now around 300 students from Shishutirtho School are participating in the programme “Schooling with Parents”. As the pilot phase is a success, we are planning to upscale the programme to Samakal school.

As the corona situation is worsening in Bangladesh and deep uncertainty still remains about the global education system our teachers are also in severe mental pressure. The students are also getting anxious about the whole situation. Unfortunately, most of our students lacks to home internet and computer facilities, thus we are trying to find newer innovative ideas to stay more engaged with our all our students. Similarly the Government of Bangladesh has also launched TV schooling programme following the national curriculum which is being telecasted through national broadcasting station.

Case Study:

“It has been nearly three months since I have not been to my school. I miss my friends and my Apa Moni. Ma asks me to stay home all the time, but I don’t feel very good about it. Apa Moni calls me regularly and talks to me a lot. I love when she calls me and also lets me know about my friends. Even though the school is closed I still study, Apa moni asks me to study at least 2 hours every day. She gave me a syllabus to follow and also helps me over phone when I face any trouble. Studying without my friends is not fun. I just want to go back to my school, I do not like the virus at all. Apa moni tells me things will be okay soon and till then I need to protect my family by staying home” - A third grader from Shishutirtho School. 

Stay Home, Stay Safe.