Rotary Club of Alliston sponsors a Mother based micro school in Bangladesh through the Amarok Society.
See below a letter from Parvin and photos of her, students and colleagues.
Parvin with her students at her micro school
July 2023
Parvin
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Parvin
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dear members of the Rotary club of Alliston,
Love to you. I hope all members of your club are well and living in peace. My neighborhood children are doing well. I am very happy in my present life and pleased to continue my learning by breaking many unseen walls of ignorance. I am a proud member of my community. Before my education I couldn’t share my opinion because I was alone, hesitant, shy and lived in fear. Now I can share my feelings and be able to say 'yes' or 'no' whatever my answer is. Now I know where to go and get support for my needs. I do it for myself and for my neighbors.
I would like to share with you about an adolescent girl Mitu, she is 15 years old and lives with her family in Purovi slum. When she was 9 years old, her father left her mother and re-married another girl. Her father did it without a notice to her mother and flew. Her mother went to her elder brothers to file a case but they didn’t do anything, even listened to her if she became the burden of their family with 2 little girls. She was a housewife and didn't get any opportunity to learn in her childhood. But she didn’t break up, she fought for her own life. Rented a tiny shack in the slum and started to work as a part-time housemaid to maintain her livelihood. But she couldn’t find a way to educate her children even though she had no time to think about it. Then another tragedy hit her, one day Mitu was cooking while her mother was not at home. Somehow boiled water poured down to her body. Mitu started screaming and one of my neighbors shared the incident to me that a little girl was burnt by boiled water in the next slum. I ran there quickly and found some people were surrounding her and were talking about what to do! I told them, “We should not spend any time, she needs to be admitted to a hospital. I knew that every government hospital has a burn-unit, so such a patient can get good & free treatment there. I found my friend Koli there. We took her to a government hospital and admitted the girl to the burn-unit. Her mother got the bad news a few hours later, she reached the hospital. I shared the message in our school and we collected some contributions from the community to support Mitu. After a few weeks of treatment Mitu recovered and came back home. Her mother became very thankful to the Amarok mother. I proposed to her to teach Mitu in my micro-school and she happily agreed. I have been teaching her for 3 years. Mitu is an independent reader, can write very well and she is very good at mathematics. Like me, all my friends at our school teach our own children and neighbor children like Mitu.
Love to you. I hope all members of your club are well and living in peace. My neighborhood children are doing well. I am very happy in my present life and pleased to continue my learning by breaking many unseen walls of ignorance. I am a proud member of my community. Before my education I couldn’t share my opinion because I was alone, hesitant, shy and lived in fear. Now I can share my feelings and be able to say 'yes' or 'no' whatever my answer is. Now I know where to go and get support for my needs. I do it for myself and for my neighbors.
I would like to share with you about an adolescent girl Mitu, she is 15 years old and lives with her family in Purovi slum. When she was 9 years old, her father left her mother and re-married another girl. Her father did it without a notice to her mother and flew. Her mother went to her elder brothers to file a case but they didn’t do anything, even listened to her if she became the burden of their family with 2 little girls. She was a housewife and didn't get any opportunity to learn in her childhood. But she didn’t break up, she fought for her own life. Rented a tiny shack in the slum and started to work as a part-time housemaid to maintain her livelihood. But she couldn’t find a way to educate her children even though she had no time to think about it. Then another tragedy hit her, one day Mitu was cooking while her mother was not at home. Somehow boiled water poured down to her body. Mitu started screaming and one of my neighbors shared the incident to me that a little girl was burnt by boiled water in the next slum. I ran there quickly and found some people were surrounding her and were talking about what to do! I told them, “We should not spend any time, she needs to be admitted to a hospital. I knew that every government hospital has a burn-unit, so such a patient can get good & free treatment there. I found my friend Koli there. We took her to a government hospital and admitted the girl to the burn-unit. Her mother got the bad news a few hours later, she reached the hospital. I shared the message in our school and we collected some contributions from the community to support Mitu. After a few weeks of treatment Mitu recovered and came back home. Her mother became very thankful to the Amarok mother. I proposed to her to teach Mitu in my micro-school and she happily agreed. I have been teaching her for 3 years. Mitu is an independent reader, can write very well and she is very good at mathematics. Like me, all my friends at our school teach our own children and neighbor children like Mitu.
Mitu and Parvin
We are happy doing such work.
I love working and supporting others. I want to keep myself with good works in the community. Some other mothers of our slum are also involved with income generation activities like rearing hens & duck, tailoring and handicrafts. Husbands and other community people now appreciate our work.
My micro-school is running well. I teach 5 children for 1 hour for 5 days a week and play with them. I love them and they also love me. You would be happy to know that my micro school child Bijoy has got 80% marks in all subjects in the last annual examination. This year he is in grade 4 and his target is 90% marks in all subjects. He didn’t get any extra support except from my micro-school. His parents are very happy and I am also proud of his success. I want to be a very good mother-teacher.
Thanks for your support for creating a learning opportunity in our slum.
Lovingly,
Parvin
Mothers learning at their school how to teach the children.
For more information about the work of the Amarok Society please visit their website