Dhaka
Action in cooperation with Groupe Développement
Project presentation
Beneficiaries : 15000 children
Actions :
- Street education: 45 minutes of school, entertaining activities and access to first aid.
- «Drop-ins»: Centres open from 09:00 to 17:00.
- «Clubs»: Open 24/7, children can obtain informal schooling and professional training.
- «Maisons»: Flats accommodating 20 to 25 children.
The aim is to try to obtain an environment resembling a family unit as much as possible.
Project life
January 2007 : Based on ïdgroup co-workers visit...
I visited the young girls’ centre (7 to 15 year olds) for the second time in a few months and some of them had made amazing progress.
The fearful young girls of February had turned into smiling young people with a completely different outlook on life. Some of them already have ideas about their careers, ranging from becoming a doctor to help the future generations or a journalist to inform the whole world about the daily poverty in their country. Others have left to go back to their homes that they had left some time before or from which they had been pushed out.
The welcome was, as always, very warm with most of the children asking questions about the way of life in Europe, the customs, our work, the food (this was right in the middle of Ramadan), religion and, perhaps the most surprising, politics (for our future journalist).
April 2007 : Based on ïdgroup co-workers visit with great joy and lots of emotion...
We are still greeted by the same big smiles, the same warmth and enthusiasm to welcome us... The young girls tell us about the development of their personal projects, their educational progress, their successful integration into this organisation, and the love they receive from their guardian, who has been sharing their everyday lives for years.
During our visit, we participated in the project to set up a library within the organisation, and we bought books (in Bengali) for both young and old from local bookshops. This was a great success with all the girls, and their interest in reading was easy to see: cartoons, children’s magazines, poetry books.
We deeply encourage the pursuit. It has two aims: to give children access to reading outside the school framework, and to involve them in the management of a library which belongs to them !
