UAE charity helps put Bangladeshi children through school

Dubai Cares funds a project that saw more than 1,600 classrooms set up in rural areas across Bangladesh.

DUBAI // A school set up by a UAE-based charity to help underprivileged children in a rural village in Bangladesh is now a key part of the local community.

Life for children in Matha Bhanga village, in the Charkachikata Union located in the north of the country, was largely spent working on fishing boats or tilling the fields rather than attending classes and getting an education.

But thanks to the Shikhon programme run by Save the Children, which was funded by Dubai Cares and supported by local social welfare organisation the Jagarani Chakra Foundation, things began to change.

The Khanbari Shikhon school was part of a countrywide scheme that saw more than 1,600 classrooms set up in rural areas across Bangladesh.

Each classroom has space for up to 25 children.

"The idea behind this is to work with the community to make it sustainable," said Asma Malik, Dubai Care's country programme officer.

The community provide a space for the school, which can be in the form of a room or hut and the charity then renovates it and provides books and training for the teachers.

"The children are then taught over a four-year period what would normally take five years and we support them in that."

The charity funds US$120 (Dh440.7) per child for the four-year period.

"One of the biggest problems in Bangladesh is the issue of flooding so in that respect it is difficult to create the transport infrastructure," said Ms Malik.

"What tends to happen is that either the children don't go to school or they use small boats to navigate the flood waters.

"We have helped by providing some of these boats but the key thing for us as part of this wider project is to set up these classrooms within villages so the children don't need to travel far."

Once the children complete their four years they then join mainstream government-run secondary schools.

The project was launched in 2009 and concluded in 2012 but ongoing support is provided by Dubai Cares.

"We work with the community as well as Save the Children to make it as feasible as possible for the community to continue to operate the school once the programme ends," added Ms Malik.

Dubai Cares is also working on a Dh9.2 million aid programme to improve the education and nutrition of children aged five to 11 as part of a pilot school feeding project in the capital Dhaka.