DoPeace.org-Al-Falah Mohammadpur

04/06/2019

Md.Izhar L.C
Coaching Class

06/05/2019

Mohammad Sazzad Ali

Assalamu Alaikum
Ramadan Mubarak to everyone.

Alhamdulillah.

Endless gratitude to Allah for letting us enter into the most blesssed month, Ramadan for yet another time.

May He enable us to adhere to all the DO's and avert all the DON'Ts ever so sincerely.

May the ultimate goal of attaining TAQWA, be accomplished in true sense.

Ameen.

02/05/2019

Representative Mr. Dewan Abu Wasek Surprised visit at the two learning center of Market Camp & Geneva Camp Afternoon Pre-School Class and Evening Coaching Classes.

02/05/2019

03/10/2017

Will we let 250,000 Rohingya Muslim Children Suffer?

31/07/2017

31/07/2017

Dear NGO partners, staff, teachers, and the supporters:

DoPeace is proud of your commitment to our mission to educate small children in the slums. Our wide range of supporters would like to hear directly from each of the DoPeace members about their daily activities. Please click the following links and like the pages so you can the posts from each other and from our supporters. Thank you.

https://www.facebook.com/DoPeaceUSA/
https://www.facebook.com/DoPeaceMohammadpur/
https://www.facebook.com/dopeacerangpur/
https://www.facebook.com/dopeacemirpur/
https://www.facebook.com/dopeacesaidpur/
https://www.facebook.com/dopeacechittagong/
https://www.facebook.com/dopeacehouston/
https://www.facebook.com/DoPeaceBangladesh/
https://www.facebook.com/DoPeaceorg-RBNS-Saidpur-129567630983368/
https://www.facebook.com/DoPeaceorg-EAKOK-Mirpur-1818597541788422/
.org

21/07/2017

World’s unique method of mass educating the poorest of the poor

Tens of thousands of children who have graduated from DoPeace learning centers in the last three years are in more than 100 preschools throughout Bangladesh.

The DoPeace model of solving the educational problem in the slums is already one of the worlds unique low-cost methods for rapid implementation on the mass scale. We enroll 10,000 poorest of the poor disadvantaged children into the DoPeace school system every year. This at a low-cost of $1 per child per month.

The quality of our preschool graduates is well known among the primary schools within the community. All of our eligibile graduates get rapid admission to grade one. Thus, we have avoided the cost of starting our own schools which will otherwise require millions of dollars.

Rapid and high quality of education for the masses-that is what our seven local NGOs and more than 100 teachers and staff are accomplishing - making the world a better place for the poorest of the poor children.

16/07/2017

My 7th Visit to Bangladesh
Education in the Slums
Post 3: The haunting past
I was at the Panel Discussion at Al-Falah in the Geneva Camp in Mohammadpur and at PBUS in Mirpur, both located in Dhaka. We have instituted this new format to discuss with the stakeholders that included local businesses, community leaders, parents, teachers, and the students. I was not sure where the panel discussion was going to go, but it turned out to be intense. I needed to discuss the responsibilities and the ownership of educating the children.
It was an emotional roller coaster, as each person (of about 15 participants) started to talk about their past, and how he or she ended up where they are now. The discussion spanned three generations -- their parents and their children. The parents had up to 5th grade education or less, except one who had a Bachelor's degree in Psychology.
Naseema (real names are being withheld for privacy) talked about her father. She got married and moved from their original residence in Dinajpur to Geneva Camp, where she is living for 7 years. She had this fond memories of their parents raising her and her 5 siblings; he tried his best to educate them. Her father ran a small general store, but that barely met their needs. Education was an additional expense they could not afford. She talked about her father who worked so hard and lovingly raised the family with the meager means, tears rolled down her eyes as she spoke. She stated in no uncertain words that she loved her parents, which was a little startling as open verbalization of such emotions is rare in the culture. She is definitely committed to educating her two children as she realized by experience the value of it.
The one with totally grey hair, Abid, runs a small grocery store at the corner of Geneva Camp. The business is not as brisk as he would like to have as the location is a little away from the main market. During Ramadan the business has slowed down anyhow. His father was a skilled laborer in Nawabpur, near the center city. He had good income, but then he died, leaving the family without any income. He was the eldest so the responsibility of raising his 3 brothers and 2 sisters essentially fell on his shoulders. Then he got married and had several children. He worked hard all his life and now he has problems with his hands and the manual work has become very difficult. He was very sad that his children are all married, gone their own ways, and do not care about him. They don’t even check if their father has proper food to eat, he lamented.
The discussion on who is responsible for educating their children was illuminating. When I asked if Mr. Abid’s sons are not taking care of their own father, why someone from all the way from the USA should come in and take the responsibility of teaching their kids. I kept the argument simple, not discussing that there are other compelling reasons for us and the world to get involved. Finally it was settled that they are solely responsible for educating their children, and they welcome that we are there to help them in this pursuit. That has always been DoPeace’s position, and we keep articulating this on every occasion.
The community's contribution to educating their children, however, remained unresolved. .org

13/07/2017

My 7th Visit to Bangladesh
Education in the Slums
Post 2: Opportunity for Whom?

After our meeting with Al-Falah teachers and management, we started heading back through the meandering narrow streets of Geneva Camp. If you walk the streets for the first time, i promise it will be an unforgettable experience, reminiscent of a dilapidated world you may have seen in movies with piles of dirt, unbearable stench, open sewage next to the walkways, and overcrowded one room residences.

As I followed the staff, negotiating the muddy lane after the heavy rain, I saw a half-naked boy about four years old, standing on the doorway to his house. I paused for a moment and looked at him, our eyes locked for a moment. My mind jumped back when I was a kid of the same age in the same city.

If you take back the intervening time, I find very little difference between the two kids. I was not a gifted child by any stretch of imagination. The brain capability is definitely the same. It is a luck of the draw that dictated the difference. I cannot explain why I am not there in place of that kid.

Now let’s say a philanthropist shows up in the slum at the moment from the USA and decides that he would provide for food and the basic necessities for the child. Will it change anything for the child, besides being well fed and better clothed? The answer is No, as the destiny of the child will still not change much.

The child is still not provided something call the Opportunity - the opportunity to shape his life - while the visitor had this opportunity in the past. The difference is the opportunity of education.

There is no conceivable reason that, given the opportunity, this kid will not be able to complete, say, his engineering degree, find ways to get his Ph.D., and earn to have a respectable life. It is already done. I am there as a proof. The two from the same city.

May be this child could grow up to be a better philanthropist than I can ever be. Maybe he will educate thousands of children in the slums of the world. May be he will make the world a better place to live than I can imagine.

By providing the opportunity of education to this child, are we doing a favor to the child or are we creating opportunity for ourselves? Our future generations may live a better life because this child gets the education.
As I walked away from the child, I just wished that there will be a school for him to go to when he is of the age. I wish he will have the opportunity to rise up and save the world!

21/06/2017

My 7th Visit to Bangladesh
Education in the Slums
Post 6: A debate with the stakeholders


The room was packed with the parents, slum community leader, several key individuals of the camp, some of the invited teachers, and our Partner NGO. The words were already out and the concern of the community was high that DoPeace was thinking about changing the rules of engagement. The concern was valid. I was on the front line ready to make my argument.

It was not antagonistic, as we have developed some trust in the community over the last two years. We are serving over 1200 children in that community. A civic dialog was brewing, and I was there to defend my position.

As each one was introduced, they also started to put their questions out front. Are you now going to charge tuition for the services? Other schools provide not only free education, but they also provide uniforms and food. We are here because we can’t afford to go to proper schools, and this is convenient. We cannot find schools as they have very limited enrollment. Do you understand that we are poor people and we struggle to make our ends meet? We appreciate what you are doing, but you are now disengaging yourself from us. Why can’t you continue the way it is going, as we are very happy the way it is?

I listened to them intently, trying very hard to understand what they are really saying. I collected the questions in my mind, nodding all the time and responding intermittently just to clarify their questions. The community leader, with whom I have a good rapport, tried to intervene occasionally to blunt the sharp questions by sugarcoating the points being made, but I gently asked him to back off. My NGOs were sitting over next to me and wondering what is going to happen.

This is not the first time, I had engaged the slum community in civic dialog. I did it twice this week before I ended up with this community.

I started talking to them, and there was a pin drop silence.

My Board of Directors (I used much simpler language and not the lingo) wants to know if the community really wants to educate their children?

A silly question, perhaps. Of course, they want their children to get educated. Why else are they there?

My Board of Directors wants the proof, I emphasized. I pointed out that there were three nonprofit organizations before, some of them quite flush with money. They had schools in the community, and they are all long gone. So, eventually, we will go away as well.

They looked at me, bewildered. Why would you go away and betray us, like others, the mother of a student asked?

Let me tell you a simple reason, I said. If I am dead today, this enterprise is going end. But there could be other reasons.

They were aghast and there were sympathetic murmurs in the room. We want a long-life for you, someone said loudly, and there was resounding agreement. (secretly, I was relieved)

I laughed. I do not have any plans to die that quickly, I said, but I am trying to make a point, as anything can happen and it is a risky position to depend on me on or any other organization 100%.

You have to be a partner in this endeavor and make sure that the schools continue in perpetuity, I said. You are solely responsible for educating your children, and for the last 40 years you have not taken any steps whatsoever, I was a little dramatic. You have been walking around these neighborhoods for years, you see the children on the streets, and you never got together to seriously plan for their education on your own.

But we do not have any money for that, said one woman.

In this community of 15,000 people, I am sure that many of them can contribute one Taka per month towards the community fund for education, I replied. Has any of you contributed one Taka in the last 40 years for education? I raised my voice a little, looking at the leader and the two businessmen sitting there. There was silence.

That shows that you have no concerns about educating your children, and I cannot provide any proof to my Board of Directors to continue helping you, I was a little combative.

I want you to be engaged and stop asking for free stuff. I want a partnership. I want joint venture. I kept going.

I saw them getting my point. I saw some of them relenting.