Where we work
Mosherpasha: From school at the roof to the EDS house
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Hafiz is grown up in Mosherpasha, Khulna, Bangladesh. When he was around 12 years old, he started a football team with mainly out of school children from the factories, streets and the slum. He motivated them to go to school. In the afternoons, he taught them in secret on the roof of his home so his parents didn’t see him. |
When Hafiz went to Norway for studies, he motivated Alamin to continue teaching the children. Alamin convinced his parents to let him use his bedroom as classroom.
Increasingly more students came as they enjoyed playing with and learning from Alamin. Hafiz bought this first EDS house (10 000 USD) from savings from his Norad scholarship and his PhD salary.
As the EDS house was not very large, Hafiz built a bamboo house to accommodate more students. Multiple teachers taught their classes in the bamboo house simultaneously.
Shonali and Ajax jute mills: EDS opens new branches
The news spread that Alamin was teaching children in friendly ways through games and made learning comprehensible, manageable and meaningful, so increasingly more students came from further away. Students coming from the industrial areas of the Shonali and Ajax jute mills, around 3 km from Mosherpasha, requested Alamin to open EDS branches in their localities. Many children in Ajax and Shonali worked in the factories and did not go to school.
Alamin convinced the headmasters of the jute mill schools in Shonali and Ajax to let EDS use the classrooms after school time. EDS youth from Ajax and Shonali volunteered to teach the children.
Alamin with EDS students in front of the Ajax jute mill school. Irfan and Irfan worked in Shonali and Ajax jute mills as children. EDS helped them back to school and they started teaching in Shonali and Ajax.
When the jute mills closed down, the residents lost their jobs, and most families left the area in search for jobs. In lack of volunteers and students, EDS paused our activity in Shonali and Ajax.
The current condition of Ajax jute mill school. In 2023, EDS youth leaders re-opened an EDS branch in Ajax.
Home visit to a family in Ajax. EDS has built a bamboo house in Ajax where our volunteers teach local children and arrange picnic for them.
Mosherpasha: New and larger EDS house
When the EDS house started to show cracks on the walls, and we needed larger space to teach all the EDS students, Hafiz tore down the EDS house and build a larger house for EDS. He used his savings from his work as a senior science teacher in Norway.
Constructing the new EDS house and making a new well so the EDS children and neighbours get clean water.
The new EDS house has two floors and large rooms, so we have space for teaching, picnic and cultural events.
EDS volunteers teach in the 2000 m2 roof garden of the EDS house.
The fish farm
People living in this area are economically poor. The nearest school is 6 km away, so many children do not go to school. The road is especially dangerous for the girls. Hence, the EDS volunteers have established an EDS branch here to give the children education.
Shishu Pali governmental orphanage
EDS volunteers have taken initiative to teach the 50 boys living in the Shishu Pali governmental orphanage. They act like big brothers and mentors for the orphan boys.
