Children's Hope: A holistic investment in education, not just handouts
Children’s Hope bears the educational expenses of selected disadvantaged children residing in Dhaka’s slums, provides them with healthcare and offers support to their families until they graduate
Ayesha Akter Turna had dreamed of becoming a doctor since her childhood. But being a shopkeeper's daughter and living in the Karail slum area, studying medicine is not something you see every day or dare to dream of.
But then one day in 2009, when she was a student in the sixth standard at the TNT Adarsha Girls School in Mohakhali, she was visited by a team of two people who met her and her family.
"There were four or five rounds of sessions where I was asked how I wanted to see my life, what goals I had, and whether my family would want me to continue my studies or not. They chose me and four others from my school and since then, Children's Hope has been taking care of our educational expenses," Turna said.
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Not just education, the 15 children with Turna that were selected from that area, were provided with skill development activities like preparing presentations, writing competitions and IT training by the organisation.
In 2021, Turna completed her MBBS from Mymensingh Medical College and she is currently employed by icddr,b and posted in Chandpur now.
Children's Hope was set up in the year 2000 with three key aims in mind – providing education for the disadvantaged children residing in Dhaka's urban slums, providing them with healthcare and offering support for their families.
Since April 2000, the organisation has funded the education of 350 slum children and currently, they have an alumni of 130 university graduates who once resided in the slum areas of the capital - Karail slum in Banani, Bhasantek, Kalshi and Mirpur.
This year, they have selected 100 more students and their education expenses will be funded by the organisation till their graduation.
"Our calculation says that we invest Tk1 lakh per student in a year on average. This includes their school fees, uniforms, books and stationary, along with their family comprehensive healthcare," said Quais Shafiq ul Hassan, the co-founder of the organisation, who is also the managing director of Echo Sourcing, Echotex, Echoknits, EchoLogyx in Bangladesh.
The organisation receives financial assistance from both local donors, as well as Children's Hope UK, which raises funds from a number of UK-based sources.
Children's Hope UK is the fundraising wing of Children's Hope Bangladesh. They commission several initiatives to advance education, healthcare and community development projects in Dhaka. Children's Hope UK Ltd is registered with the Charity Commission UK.
For example, Turna was given a sponsorship by Mackays Stores Ltd UK, which was one of the organisation's major donors, until recently.
A 16-member team takes care of the activities of the organisation - ranging from administration to fieldwork.
Assistance for families to keep children in school
"When we first started in 2000, we wanted to fund children's education only. But we realised that financial stability is more important for these families; there is a chance these children will move out of school and get into services to earn money. So we thought of providing healthcare and microfinance to the families so that they allow their kids to study," said Dr Yaad Latifur Rahman, the co-founder of Children's Hope, who, according to Quais, is the architect of the project.
Every week they organise a health camp in each slum, which is effectively a drop-in service free at the point of access.
"We also provide microfinance to families to start an enterprise at an interest rate of 12%. And generally, the amount is from Tk10,000 to Tk45,000", Latifur Rahman said.
The condition for these benefits is that the child remains in school and completes their studies without worrying much about the expenses. "What we believe is that proper education can transform the child's life chances and their family's quality of life. Giving the children of Dhaka this opportunity is our mission," he explained.
What Latifur Rahman learnt from this project in the last 22 years is, "opportunity is the key to success. Up until now, there was a myth that a rickshawala's son will be a rickshawala and a business person's son will be a businessman. But when we invested time and resources, and supported a rickshawala's son, we saw that he is breaking the myth; that nobody is superior or inferior to anybody."
Partnering with the schools
Like Turna, the students are selected by the headmasters of the schools and generally, they are selected from the merit list.
"The headmasters inform us of the brilliant students who need financial support. We then visit them and their families to know more. We search for family income, their plan, and whether they will marry the kids off or not. If the family's monthly income is equal to or less than Tk12,000, and if they promise to carry on with the kid's studies, then we select them for the programme.
Because this is a huge investment, we don't want this investment to fail. This is why our success rate is high, meaning most of these children get to finish their graduation and get better jobs. The few failures we have are mostly due to early marriage and drug addiction", Quais said.
Currently, the organisation has a partnership with six schools in Mirpur, Bhashantek and Karail areas. Every two to three months, the members of Children's Hope visit the students' homes to monitor whether they are studying properly.
A student's expenses for school and college education include the monthly fee, exam fee, stationeries, clothes, transportation and coaching classes, which are deposited by the organisation. While expenses for the university admission coaching and then graduation studies are given directly to the students as a stipend.
They also have a nutrition programme where they provide eggs and milk thrice a week to the children.
What they believe is that education cannot be a one-time token of charity, rather it should be a serious investment that brings out real-life results that impacts the lives of the person receiving it.
"When we started in 2000, the annual expense per child was Tk30 thousand, which has now risen to Tk1 lakh. This is something we struggle with as we are a donation-based organisation. That's why we couldn't expand the programme. The number of children we take care of is limited and that's fine because we want to emphasise quality education", Quais ended.
