Rotary Club of Alliston sponsors one of the Amarok Society's mother based schools in Bangladesh. Please check out the letter from Parvin, our sponsored mother, for some of the amazing things that are happening in their community of Dhaka.
April 2024Parvin
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dear members of the Rotary Club of Alliston,
I am well with my family, children and the neighbors. We are happy that our school is going very well and learning is going joyfully. I used to write Journal once a month but now I am writing it once a week. Journal is an important way to record our success, happiness and sadness. Most of my friends are doing well and have developed skills. Sometimes we draw pictures and write underneath about the drawing.
Today I would like to share with you about a graduate student named Toma who is only 14 years old, studies in class eight in the Nurerchala Government School. She has two siblings. Her father Md. Nur Mia used to work in the agriculture field as a laborer and mother was a housewife. In the village their days were not going well there. So, they move to Dhaka for a better life. In Dhaka, her father started to work as a rickshaw puller and mother as a housemaid. Their life was going well in a tiny room in the slum. But due to the corona pandemic, a disaster came to their family. Her father couldn’t work regularly because of the lockdown and her mother was affected by “Liver problem” and didn’t get better treatment for lack of money. Finally, her mother died. Her father did not marry again thinking about the little children, Toma had to take responsibility for caring for her 2 younger siblings who were 7 and 5. Tomma’s study was stopped. She stayed at home all day.
In such a situation, one day some of her friends visited her house and requested her to join the school again. But she didn’t do it as she had to look after her siblings. Toma graduated from the micro-school of the Amarok Mother Anowara, the news reached to her through another graduate child Ruma. She visited the house in the evening when Toma’s father was at home. Anowara told him, “I am really impressed to see your commitment to your little children. In our society men usually don’t take a month to marry again if the wife leaves or dies but you think a lot for your children. Tomma is a meritorious girl; she was doing well in school. Do you agree that she should continue her schooling? I know, there is none to take care of her younger siblings but there are a few Amarok mothers who live close to your house. Tomorrow I will come to visit you again with some of them. You can talk to them if you wish, Tomma can leave her siblings at any of their houses when she will go to school”. Such a way Tomma’s problem was solved and she started joining school keeping them in Bokul's house, our friend.
This issue has given us a new area of thinking and working. Some of the women in the slum need to go out for work. But cannot go because where to keep their little children! Some go because they need earning, requesting their neighbors to look after the children. It happens good and bad too, sometimes little children go here & there and fall in difficulties. We are thinking of opening a day care center for the working mothers to keep their children and provide learning materials, toys, games to play with and make some responsible for the center. We would request the mothers if they willingly pay some to maintain the rent of the room and request Amarok for the play & game-materials. 4 mothers Parvin, Anowara, Nazma and I are leading the idea to implement. We believe we could do something and send you an update in the next letter.
Thank you for your support to my education and to our children.
Yours Lovingly,
Parvin
