Free-of-cost School for Underprivileged Children

JAAGO’s achievements of 10 years

2017 marked  JAAGO Foundation’s 10th year in its journey to provide the free of cost quality education to the underprivileged children of Bangladesh. The journey has been far from easy yet after 10 years, when our students proudly say that JAAGO has given them hope for a better future while they excel at public examinations and extra-curricular activities, these give us encouragement to continue our endeavour.

In the first few days, the underprivileged children who enrol at JAAGO schools are burdened by extreme poverty and it shows in their faces as they lack hope for their future. However, JAAGO’s way of nurturing its students soon turn them into visionary human beings which is evident in the way they present themselves in every social situation. After 10 years, these children are now empowered who believe they can change their fate as well as their families'.

The change is also significant in the local communities where JAAGO schools operate. When JAAGO started its journey, the communities were reluctant to open up to yet another organization which wanted to change their lives. But seeing the people of JAAGO’s unwavering commitment and dedication to improve lives of not only its students but also their families, these communities have slowly realized the impact JAAGO’s school program was having to promote social cohesion.

It’s rewarding to realize that JAAGO’s commitment to its cause is not only recognized by the students and their families but also different local and international organizations which have praised JAAGO’s 10 years of work. So far, JAAGO was awarded UNESCO King Hamad’s use of ICTs in Education, Global Development Network’s ‘Most Innovative Development Project’, Manthan Award 2015- Special Jury mention for developing an interactive video-conferencing software for its online schools, Mr. Korvi Rakshand, JAAGO’s Founder as 'Top 99 under 33 Influential Foreign Policy Leaders and 'Top 10 Most Inspiring Bangladeshis' 2013 and Mosaic International Award 2010.

Reading and Writing Competition

Education, confined within syllabus based schooling, isn’t enough to grow a child as a complete human being, which is why the necessity of extracurricular activities is undeniable. To cater to this need, JAAGO recently hosted a Reading and Writing competition in its 13 schools for all the students.

For the writing competition, students were asked to write on some specific topics selected by the teachers, such as, First day at school, Eid holiday, My dream house, My aim in life, A Winter morning, and so on, while they were asked to read from their English and Bengali textbooks during the reading competition. JAAGO’s school management team took this initiative because we believe writing competition can hone children’s imagination power while the reading competition can improve communication and enunciation skills.

The top 3 performers of both the competitions were awarded in each class and all the students had fun throughout the events.   

Business Club

As JAAGO Foundation educates the children with the maintenance of high quality and patronizes their innovative ideas, we encourage students to apply their learning in practical situations. Recently, the students of Business Studies group at JAAGO’s Rayer Bazar school have formed a business club to generate new ideas for entrepreneurship and exert their learning from textbooks. As the club’s first initiative, the students have carried out a class project on how to build an organization, produce different products, and develop a marketing plan to sell them. They showcased their project at the school premises which highly mesmerized the visitors. The visitors encouraged the Business Club’s innovative work, as it promotes entrepreneurship which could be a source of income among the underprivileged.

Debate Competition

JAAGO believes that permeating logical thinking among the children is indispensible to help them flourish with knowledge as Richard Dawkins, a well-known evolutionary biologist, says, “Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.”

From this belief, JAAGO collaborated with Bangladesh Debate Warriors (BDW), a renowned debating organization in the country, to instill debating skill among its students. Having worked with the JAAGO’s senior students just for a year, BDW has formed a debating club JAAGO-BDW School of Debate.

Recently, a five-member debating team from this club participated in the ‘2nd National Business Genius Bangladesh on International Tourism & Hospitality - 2017’ where JAAGO’s debaters became runners up while competing against Bangladesh’s one of the top ranked schools for education and debating skills. Not only this, Lenin, a student of 10th Grade, won the Best Debater of the Year 2016-17 Award. Both of these achievements were a great feather in our cap as this makes it evident that the quality gap between children from wealthy and poverty-stricken families, in terms of education and extracurricular skills, can be bridged if we can do our part by supporting the education of the underprivileged

How JAAGO change lives!

Md. Lelin

Standard 10

My father is a rickshaw-puller and mother is a small service holder. However, my family’s financial condition is not very good. When I was young, I did not get my parents close to me, as they were working hard to earn money for our living. I belong to a poverty stricken family, yet I can proudly say that my parents are very good human beings and I am proud of them. Even though it’s very hard to pull a rickshaw under the scorching heat, my father helps 100’s of people by his service.  

There was a time when I had no dreams, but now I dream of making my parents proud. I dream of making a better society for ourselves. And the reason is something unbelievable-  JAAGO happened to me. What is JAAGO? For me, it is my second home where I started my life. I have been studying in JAAGO since 2007 and it seems I have entered into a new world with a new life. Now, a rickshaw-puller’s son dreams of becoming a marine engineer. JAAGO taught me that being rich is not how much you have but how much you give. It taught me that happiness lies in love and one should always keep on spreading it. JAAGO is a continuous driving force of my life and the key to reach my dreams. I can proudly say that I have found my paradise on earth where I have been taught to dream as big as I want. I will be belonging to JAAGO forever, no matter where I go in future. It is such a place for me, where I find unremitting peace.

Thank You

We convey our profoundest gratitude to the corporate partners, national and international child sponsors, donor agencies and supporters from different fields, without who this journey wouldn’t have come this far and reach the milestone with remarkable success in changing the lives of the underprivileged children. We also urge them to continue their invaluable support to this humanitarian cause so that our organization can make sure each child in every corner of the country and perhaps beyond receives quality education to rescue themselves from the curse of poverty in days to come. Stand with us to withstand odds falling onto our children!