Project for children collecting garbage in Sylhet

In Bangladesh's urban areas around 400,000 people, mostly women and children, survive by sorting and collecting waste materials at local garbage dumps. They work barehanded sorting paper, plastic, metal and glass and selling what they find to recycling centres.  UKBET is running a project with children working on dumps in Sylhet. The programme provides numeracy, literacy and life skills sessions at learning centres near waste hotspots. Fieldworkers liaise with the parents and encourage children to attend classes three times a week.

Total enrolment = 58 with 70% regular attendance rate 

School admission = 20

Siblings Students Admission= 9

Family Support= 16

Joined Non-hazardous Job= 4

Case study:

Since he stopped studying two years ago due to the pandemic, Jakaria Ahmed's (Not real name) life has been a constant struggle. He had turned to collect bottles to sell in a shop because his family had no reliable source of income. His living circumstances were not ideal, and he frequently experienced illness. He occasionally even had to sleep close to trash cans. One day our Kadamtali Centre team came across Jakarta(Not real name) and visited his family. After speaking with his family, they were able to secure his admission to the UKBET learning centre. For supporting their family income, UKBET agreed to support them with a grant. From the next day, Jakaria (Not real name) stopped collecting waste materials and started to come to our centre regularly. It didn't take long before he began to excel in his studies, propelled by the help and motivation of his peers and teachers. Everyone around Jakaria (Not real name) could see his renewed enthusiasm for learning. His teachers are very much excited to see his achievements in the centre, and they are very hopeful that Jakaria (Not real name) will get admission to formal schooling next year.