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Be a Child Sponsor TODAYHELP to bring a child to school ENSURE her/his rights to education
Please extend your noble heart to Unnayan Uddog Child Sponsorship Program
A child who is drop-out or never been enrolled must be brought back at school if we want to meet up the Millennium Development Goal, and it is urgent for the sustainable development of the country too.
In spite of various initiatives and support services from the national governments, especially in the developing countries, a large number of children cannot enroll in schools. In 2007, 72.1 millions children remained out of school and many more attend irregularly or drop-out around the globe. The ILO identifies the Asia-Pacific as the region where the majority of working children (60% of the global 211 millions) are found. It means that about one in five children (19%) in this region are involved in economic activities. The situation is not any illuminative to Bangladesh. The number of child labor in the country was 6.3 millions in 1996 that is 18.3% of this age group (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics). It has reached about 10 millions in 2007 (ILO) with a higher rate of increasing the growth of population!
Everybody knows that these unfortunate children are being deprived of their rights to education and cannot enjoy their childhood mainly for three reasons. First, the families of those children cannot afford the minimum additional educational expenses, such as examination fees, extra curriculum cost, uniforms, etc. (Tuition fee has removed at the primary level in Bangladesh); second, the families of these children think that the primary level education for their children is meaningless as they do not have any ability to provide them higher education. So they are not interested to send their children to school; third, the families of the children need the earnings (though it is small) of their kids to buy food due to the extreme poverty.
It is true that the government of Bangladesh has withdrawn tuition fees at primary level (partially at the secondary level too) and sometimes provides benefits to encourage children to enroll in school. But all these efforts cannot work properly because of extreme poverty. Unless addressing it, children of the ultra-poor families cannot be enrolled in the school and target to achieve the MDG will remain illusive.
In this situation, child sponsorship program is urgent but not in the present form through which most of the child focused national or international NGOs provide financial support to the children to meet up the direct educational expenses on yearly basis. Usually it happens for a single year, sometimes for an extended period, but any commitment to provide support for a longer period such as for 10-14 years, so that the sponsored children might have a chance to complete higher education that can help in getting better jobs and to contribute to eradicate the family poverty.
In the present form of sponsorship programme, a child is given between $300 and $400 per year (As you can see it in the advertisement/website of the INGOs those collect funds from the donors). Whereas, if this money (even less) would be redirected to the family of the sponsored child to start an small economic activity, with a promise that the family will send their child to school and manage the educational expenses from the income of the business that may have a tangible and sustainable impact.
If a family has a regular income for its survival, it can meet up the educational expenses of the children easily and thus a single time sponsorship can guarantee higher education of a child. Reviewing the child sponsorship programs of the INGOs everybody will agree that the money they expend to sponsor a child for a year can be enough to start a small business in our country. The other issue that should be considered is to look after and promote the business started by the family. This problem could be easily solved involving NGOs working at grassroots level. They can do the job easily and voluntarily if they are taken under a proper network or management (Unnayan Uddog has done it).
Therefore, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) – basic literacy for all by 2015 - will remain an elusive target, if no effective action is taken to cope with the situation. We think that this is the appropriate moment to review the global literacy policy. The Child Sponsorship Program of Unnayan Uddog is designed in the context to sponsor the children of the ultra-poor families. The target of Phase-I is to provide sponsorship to 10,000 children by 2011. Please visit our website for more information or contact us.
Please remember: When you sponsor a child …two lives change forever
The second life that is changed is yours
When you become a child sponsor, it changes your life forever. Would you not be touched by the photographs... the letters... the drawings from your sponsored child? This eternal feeling must RE-MAKE you and will give you a new identity as human being.
The cost to sponsor a child through the program is: BDT20000 ($300) at a time (for caring a children family for 12 years) OR you may donate any amount to support our program (Any amount is great for a charity cause!).
You can send your donation directly to the project account:
Account Name: Child Sponsorship Program
Account Number: 4022 299255 300
Bank: AB Bank Ltd Address: Rokeya Sharani Branch
Dhaka Tel: 9014290, 8031240
Contact Address:
Unnayan Uddog
2/G, Shyamoli, Road 1, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh
Tel: +88-02-8128463 (O), Mob: 8801711867605
E: uddog@hotmail.com/info@unnayanuddog.org
W: www.unnayanuddog.org & www.foodsecuritybd.com
OR contact with our Volunteers/Representatives in your area
Be a Social Hero/Corporate Hero - More Than a Celebrity
(Pls. contact for details)
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