Education Bangladesh Project #23862

Educating the slums

by Maria Cristina Foundation

Project Report | Feb 5, 2022
ANOTHER AMAZING MILESTONE

By Maria Conceicao | Founder

Another amazing milestone as a new batch of students arrive in Dubai. Very emotional for me as all these students and 1 mother I have known for 16 years or more.
It's such a hard task for them to travel and I'm not just talking about financial difficulties for tickets and visas (in fact on the Dubai visa side we are very fortunate to have excellent PRO services from Mr Kamal). Some of the biggest difficulties are on the Bangladesh side, having the right paperwork and many permissions required, facing many obstacles and even authorities trying to block their travel right up to the very last minute.
Many, many thanks to those who helped to make this happen and I have to say a special thank you to the UAE embassy in Dhaka who have always been so helpful, none of this would be possible without their help and support.

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Jan 25, 2022
HISTORY IN THE MAKING

By Maria Conceicao | Founder

Dec 5, 2021
From the slums to a new beginning in Dubai

By Maria Conceicao | Founder

These are families who I have been helping since 2005 and the girls have had the best education I could provide for them in Dhaka. However, they are families with very sad stories, mainly single Mums and their daughters. Either the fathers have died, disappeared, or the mothers have been victim to severe abuse, violence, and rape from the husbands who were often drug addicts or had similar issues.

All of the families were living in extreme poverty when I first started helping them.

Although we provided the best education we could in Dhaka, they were still victims of discrimination and other obstacles and I could see no option but to take them out of that environment, to give them a better future.

First we brought the girls to Dubai on a summer camp in 2019. A school in Dubai met the girls and they were so impressed that they offered full scholarships for them in Dubai. We just had to solve the issue of the residence permit before they can start school.

I tried everything, through the most connected people, at the highest levels, but nobody could help these girls to take up their scholarship offer.

However hard the challenge, I always believe that there is a way to achieve it, especially something that is worthwhile and something that may change lives for the better and after trying many ways and failing, I eventually had no option but to bring the mothers of the girls to find them sponsored jobs that were worthy enough (as per regulations) for the mothers to sponsor their daughters.

This is no easy task, these are illiterate women, who were married aged 11 or 12 and their only experience in life is that of struggle and suffering.

But we have done it, we now have 9 girls here in Dubai, admitted to school. Not only do the mothers have respectable jobs with good companies, but they each have basic housing and can support their daughters.

Certainly, this will not be the end of their challenges, Dubai is an expensive place to live, their rent takes up most of their salaries. The mothers need to keep developing and improving to make sure that their stay here is secure. The girls need to study hard to catch up and to stand out as exceptional students to keep their scholarships and to get the best opportunities in life.

So far this is a true success story, not only for these families but for the people and businesses in the UAE who have helped and supported them, showing what a great community we have here.

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