Education for Food Program
January 16, 2008 – 4:21 pmBRAC has made tremendous developments for Bangladesh. Over the three decades BRAC with the Grameen Bank has made significants annihilation of poverty. BRAC, which stands for Bangladesh Rural Advancement Communities, has combined education, microcredit, health improvements, and liberation of women to all work together and alleviate poor people out of poverty; Khadija Rehma reports.
We can take it further by empowering the poor with the education they need to raise their living standards and help their fellow poor Bangladeshis.
Bangladeshi Kids in a Primary School in a Rural Poor Area
Education for Food Program
In a previous post I emphasized that education can help solve all of Bangladesh’s problems because education itself will help people make right decisions. These decisions will empower the massess to build upon what they learned so they can use their resources to better their lives.
The plan
- Go to each village and build a modernized community center and use the community center as a the teaching ground.
- Hire teachers based on the number of children, adult males, and adult females; one teacher for every 20 people on a classroom. Organize kids based on the age, with a group of kids having 1-3 years in difference in a class.
- If the parents don’t want to participate then get the children. Exchange 1 meal for the family to send all of the kids. If kids do well in school then give the family 3 meals a day, that way the parents of the poor will encourage their kids to excel in acedemics.
- Schedule the classes so three groups of kids will be taught in one day. Example: group 1 will be taught 8-10, group 2 will be taught 10:30-2:30, and group 3 will be taught 3-6.
- Using BRAC’s format of using the country’s standard 5 year primary school to be taught in 4 years, we can improve the literacy rate of the country from 41% to 91% in about 10 years.
Money
Money should not be a problem. Bangladeshis abroad are tired of seeing their mother country suffer and they will be more than happy to donate as long they know where the money is going to. If this program ever surfaced in the future then we should set up offices in different cities abroad where Bangladesi communities lie; that way, the offices would give contact information on where their money is going to.
International Image
After Bangladesh seperated from Pakistan, the country went down hill in development until the rise of NGOs who are helping the country significantly. Currently Bangladesh is doing a lot better than Pakistan in the civil sector, while Pakistan is doing better in the military sector. Even with the natural disasters and with widespread poverty, Bangladesh is heavily reducing poverty with the various socioeconomic programs. With development programs reducing poverty, it will shine Bangladesh in the international arena. Positive reputation of Bangladesh will help lure in more and more foreign investors to the country.
I hope for a grand Bangladesh, and insh’Allah we can bring it to reality.
Tags: bangladesh, BRAC, education, grameen, healthcare
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