EDUCATION , LITERACY, VOCATIONAL TRAINING
The EHGC Community Development program in Bangladesh targets whole families and includes 3 schools and vocational training centres in Dhaka and one in a country area. Over many years these schools have educated around 1,000 children each year – from extremely poor families (mostly from the slum areas) and enabled the women to gain a skill in sewing and earn some money. The schools set a good standard and almost all children pass the government-set exams each year. Girls are especially targeted so that they have the opportunity to be educated, as are the children of rickshaw pullers and the unemployed.
For more than 40 years EHGC has partnered with Bangladesh EHGC, a registered NGO whose programs and budgets are approved each 5 years by the Bangladeshi government. All staff and teachers are nationals from Bangladesh being paid, along with the program expenses, from funds raised in Australia and New Zealand.
We are delighted to report that, as a result of this program:
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1200 boys and girls each year in 4 primary schools in Bangladesh have received a basic education, school uniforms, daily lunches, health and hygiene training, access to clean water and toilets and new clothes at Christmas.
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Many of the children have progressed to higher education and become engineers, doctors and government workers or are working in other professional positions.
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200 unskilled women each year have been trained in sewing and embroidery skills, enabling them to earn an income, often at a clothing factory or by being enabled to buy their own sewing machine.
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Rickshaw pullers have been able to own their own rickshaw or van, pay off their debts, pay back 50% of the rickshaw, leave the slums, provide an education for their children and, in many cases, start their own business.
We are grateful for the donors and sponsors who make all this possible.
Education for 1000 children from Bangladesh!
This is the core activity in the Global Concern community development program which continues to give men, women and children who live in poverty hope for a brighter future. Micro-enterprise programs such as the Rickshaw/Van program has provided men with the opportunity to own their own rickshaw or van instead of being forced to pay exorbitant rental fees. This has enabled manyto improve their financial status, pay off their debts and better provide for their families. Sewing classes have trained unskilled women so they canwork in one of the many garment factories in Bangladesh or sew at home to earn an income. Four Global Concern schools, where a large percentage of the village children being educated are girls, provide primary school education, a hot meal each day, clean water and sanitation facilities, school books, school uniforms and new clothes at Christmas, helping to give these children a sense of worth and importance, essential to their development. A Physical Education program has recently been introduced.
Funding for this work is provided by Global Concern supporters and the current funding need is to buy land for further education facilities.
Rickshaw Pullers Move Out of the Slums
The Global Concern community development program in Bangladesh continues to give men, women and children who live in poverty hope for a brighter future. Micro-enterprise programs such as the Rickshaw/Van program have provided men with the opportunity to own their own rickshaw or van instead of being forced to pay exorbitant rental fees. This has resulted in remarkable change in the lives of the poor. Many rickshaw families have been able to improve their financial status, pay off their debts, move out of the slums, start a business, send their children to school and better provide for their families.
$270 will provide one rickshaw and change the life of a desperately poor Bangladeshi family.
Women’s Lives are Changed
Unskilled women in the communities where Global Concern is educating children are also given an opportunity for self-development. In India and Bangladesh sewing classes as part of the community development program train village women in the tailoring skills they need for employment and many are able to find work in garment factories, earning an income for the first time in their lives. The Indian women who formed a “Self-Help” group are so grateful to Global Concern for giving them the opportunity to own their own sewing machines so they can sew clothes at home and earn a living. All these women from poor communities have developed in their self-esteem as they are able to help provide daily needs for their families.
$170 will provide a sewing machine to help one woman fight her way out of poverty
Zambia EHC is a registered NGO with its own staff and Board of Directors. All are nationals and work under the umbrella of the Zambian government strategic plan for the improvement of their country and its people. EHGC in Australia has worked in partnership with Zambia EHC since 2012 and continues with a food and income security program to improve the lives of the people.
The main emphasis is on food security projects with training, income generation and health components as in Malawi.
Now included in some villages are Supplementary Feeding Centres for orphaned pre-school children as well as village income generating groups where men and women are taught how to save money and borrow from the pool of funds to increase their small businesses. This is having phenomenal results and the people are so excited!
What a difference this program has made to Enala and her children!
Enala Nyangulube, a 44 year old widow in this area, had a very miserable life. She lost her husband due to HIV/AIDS as well as two of her children from Malaria. She has been supporting her family by selling firewood but it was difficult to earn enough for food or even a piece of soap. When Global Concern commenced farmer training, Enala was selected, given maize seed, cassava and fertilizers and trained to plant crops following modern methods of farming. She has been trained in good nutrition and sanitation and given a mosquito net for her two children who now are free from the deadly Malaria mosquito bites. She has been trained to make mud stoves and prepare nutritious meals. Her crops have done very well and she is hoping to have surplus next year for sale.