Local School Brings Community Together

By David Snyder

Mohammed Abdul Rahim knows the Sangoil School inside and out. As a former teacher, he smiles when he talks about the days he helped teach local youth in the early childhood education classes here. But if his teaching days are over, his connection to the school today is equally important—a vital bridge between the people of Sangoil and the school they support.

The story of the Sangoil Underprivileged Children Preparatory Education Project, known as UCPEP, really began in 1997, when Catholic Relief Services partner agency Caritas Bangladesh provided money to build a new school for Sangoil's preschool students. Though Caritas supported education at the school previously—one of their first graduates is today in university—the old school was poorly built. Caritas support, coupled with the labor of Sangoil residents, gave rise to the modern site.

"When Caritas supported us we got the roof and all of the metal roof structure," Mohammed says. "Our old school was bamboo and straw. We also got books, pens, rulers, slates and games."

Today, the Sangoil School is part of a CRS-supported teaching project that provides early childhood education to children in 197 schools across Bangladesh, an impoverished country with a 40 percent literacy rate. Working through Caritas Bangladesh on the school project since 2003, CRS provides education materials, salaries and training for teachers. Classes engage young minds and educate children who before were working on family farms instead of attending school.

'Improving the School'

"The community felt that we needed a committee to run the school," Mohammed says. "So we had a meeting and agreed on nine members."

Elected as president of the School Management Committee, Mohammed now helps keep parents informed of school operations, and the challenges the two young teachers here face in educating 56 students.

"Every month there is a community meeting to learn about the teachers, to learn what is going on and to see about improving the school," Mohammed says.

It is a remarkable level of community involvement for rural Bangladesh. Poverty and lack of local government schools leave many parents with little enthusiasm for educating their children, and scant means to do so when schools are often several miles away.

To equip local parents with the means to care for the school themselves, Caritas Bangladesh provided grants of 45,000 taka—about $737 dollars—for community members to access as loans. Borrowers may use the money to enhance their farming yields or to raise and market fish, among other small businesses. Half of the money they generate through such activities goes directly to the upkeep of the school. When household incomes improve, parents are much more likely seek education for their children. The ultimate goal is to enter students into the national educational system at age 6.

"We are creating a fund for the sustainable running of the school in the future," Mohammed explains. "When donor funding ends we will be able to run the school ourselves."

For Mohammed, the impact of the school has been tremendous, not only on the lives of the students of Sangoil, but also on those of their parents. Many are seeing for the first time a real opportunity to educate their children. It's a dream they share in regular community meetings and sporting events centered around the Sangoil School.

"We didn't use to have any kind of gatherings," Mohammed says. "The community people are aware now—they educate their children, and send them to school."

David Snyder is a photojournalist who has traveled to more than 30 countries with CRS.