Aparajeyo Children's Day

As mentioned earlier, Aparajeyo has a children's day once a month where the children get to take over the school.

The manager at his desk


The manager and headmaster. It was older children who had graduated from Aparajeyo and were attending a private secondary school, rather than the project's current students, who were put in charge. Fitting in with the secondary school's two-shift system, boys took over Aparajeyo in the morning while the girls were at school, and the girls were apparently going to come and take over in the afternoon. They were still using lesson plans prepared by the adult teachers. Nevertheless both the students and the teenage teachers seemed to be having a lot of fun.







Having seen the school we visited the slum, Sujat Nagar, from which about 75 of the children at Aparajeyo come. It was accessed via a shaky, patched-up bamboo bridge. My first thought was how pretty the place was, at least from this side of the bridge.



Water and cooking facilities.




Members of the slum action committee. The committee apparently comprised 4 men and 3 women although the women were not around when we visited. They told us the main thing this area needs is daycare centres for young children.


An NGO-provided health service.


Education provision for the several thousand children living in this slum is extremely limited. Apart from the 75 attending Aparajeyo, 20-30 go to a BRAC classroom, and perhaps a further 30 or so go to a Proshika education centre. The nearest government school is 2-3 km away, and is likely to be difficult for the children here to access.

Streetwise project, Badda

My colleague Layli and I were invited to teach a couple of English classes. These were the best behaved children I have ever come across. Apparently this is because they have a lot of stimulation from various volunteers who come in and also receive breakfast and lunch at the centre.


Layli aggressively teaching colour words - 'This is BLUE!'