Education Bangladesh Project #23862

Educating the slums

by Maria Cristina Foundation

Project Report | Feb 17, 2021
The Challenge is Immense, but we are determined.

By Maria Conceicao | Founder

We want to make history. Obviously as a charity we want to help the poor, give better opportunities etc, these are everyday goals for us. But long term we want to do something new, something that hasn’t been done before, something that people will look back on and say, wow, that is how you create change and have an impact. That is how you transform people’s lives for the better.

So we feel that our work is history in the making - but until we get those long term results many, many people tell us that we are trying to do too much for these people, or that there are easier tried and tested ways to help people in smaller ways and we don’t need to do so much – but, that doesn’t help us to reach our goals, the main one of which is to provide an educational stepping stone to all of life’s opportunities for our students, no matter what situation they are born into.

There are some, who believe in our work, in our vision, they are amazed at what we are doing for these families and they do everything they can to help. These people are special, these people are many of you who are reading this. So, we really want to thank YOU for your continued help and support. This is what enables us to keep doing what we do to reach our long-term goals.

We currently have 5 families from Bangladesh staying in Dubai, 5 mothers and 9 girls all from very difficult backgrounds in Dhaka. The girls aged 10 to 15 are bright and ambitious, they have been studying with us in Dhaka since grade 1.

We have school scholarships for the 9 girls in Dubai in a great school and we are just trying to secure their residence visas and living situation to make this move semi-permanent. We are helping the mothers to develop so that they can find work, to be independent.

It is an extreme challenge, the everyday effort to help them develop, the costs, the logistics, the powers against them in Dhaka trying to prevent them such an opportunity, the legalities and regulatory issues that make residence in Dubai difficult for them.

But the results and changes to the lives of these girls will be huge. They will have the opportunity to reach their full potential without prejudice, even to follow their hopes and dreams to study at University and later to work in the career of their choice.

If you can help, whether it is support for living costs, clothes, transport, visa costs or anything else, please do, join us and be a part of history in the making.

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Oct 26, 2020
Maria Cristina Foundation report

By Katrin Winter | Project Leader

2020 The Year That Keeps on Taking!

To say it has been a struggle would be the understatement of the year. Besides the obvious issues, faced in many countries, families losing their income, schools being locked down etc (thanks to some amazing supporters we have been able to provide food packages and help the students with online schooling), still, the challenges just keep coming.

For the families we help, their development is severely suppressed by society, it always has been, especially for the women. Even when we develop new projects to help these suffering families, it seems that society tries its best to stop that too.

Even just to leave the country (Bangladesh) is extremely challenging for women, despite having all the right paperwork (of which there is a lot).

We recently tried to bring some female students (adults) to Dubai for internships, we made sure that all paperwork was in order but at the final gate, Bangladesh immigration would not let them leave - the reason given, "we don't believe you; how could YOU get such an opportunity?".

We understand that a level of protection is needed to help prevent human trafficking etc but if the paperwork is in order and there is no genuine reason for concern, then this should not happen, these humans have rights. To have an official stop them, because in his or her selfish or suppressive view the student doesn't deserve such an opportunity, is simply criminal in our view.

On that occasion somebody from MCF had to travel to Bangladesh and with the valuable help of the UAE embassy we made sure that these girls got on the plane to Dubai, where they gained a fantastic work experience. But without our help, they would have been stuck, suppressed, held down and simply treated as if they have done wrong or do not deserve anything good in life.

The challenges haven't ended, we have more projects, trying to bring single mums and their daughters to Dubai for work and amazing scholarship opportunities - the authorities in Bangladesh are making it impossible. Creating mistakes in thier documents making it impossible for them to travel and then refusing to correct it (or asking for ridiculous amounts of money to correct it).

Also, students wanting to take up university offers in Portugal have found it impossible, either for the same issues as above, or because education authorities' wont issue their certificate or because it has become virtually impossible to obtain their student visas for Portugal. Already before the procedure was so unfair for them, students have to travel to India to apply for the visa and wait up to 40 days for issuance, there is no solution in their home country. We had hoped and requested that with COVID19 making it virtually impossible to travel, there may be a better solution, even if its temporary, but no the Portugal Embassy or visa authorities insist they have to travel to India - obviously increasing the risk of them contracting COVID 19 (and of course potentially carrying it to Portugal), I really hope these people have a rethink and adapt like the rest of the world has.

We could go on, because the challenges have been countless, but the important thing to note is - WE WILL NOT GIVE UP!

Thank you so much for your valuable support to make things happen and to make changes in our World.

Links:

http://www.mariacristinafoundation.org/

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May 29, 2020
2020 is here to test our resilience

By Maria Conceicao | Founder

Photo Credit Imran Ahmed

The challenges in recent months have been there for everybody in the world, however for developing countries, especially the slums where we work in Bangladesh, the challenges have been immense.

The year started well, we moved the majority of our students to a new school in Dhaka, with a fantastic reputation and with an array of extra-curricular activities that have never been available to our students before. The students are much so much happier and have a more positive attitude to learn and succeed.

We also continued our internship program, where we bring female students who have graduated high school to find internship programs, many of them paid, in Dubai. It has been a great success helping to prepare the students for Universities and careers outside of Bangladesh.

When Covid-19 hit the rest of the world, the crisis hit our communities in Dhaka x100.

First, business just stopped, this meant that those family members who were working, lost their income immediately.

Then the schools closed and so our students were stuck in their cramped makeshift homes with their families, unable to move about outside.

We have been desperately trying to support the families with food, toiletries and rent, we have had some great support but it has been a struggle to feed hundreds of people and so the struggle is ongoing.

The school switched to an online study program, but of course, the majority of our students do not have access to the internet and only a lucky few with generous sponsors, have mobile smartphones. We went on a mission to provide low-cost smartphones for all students so that they could access their classes and thanks to some amazing sponsors the majority now have phones and access – this is an ongoing project.

We were also able to send some used laptops donated by Du in Dubai, thanks to the amazing support from the UAE Embassy of Bangladesh.

Because of the lockdown, we have had 3 of our young ladies stuck in Dubai, with their internships finished they had no way to support themselves with food or toiletries, although thanks to some amazing supporters in Dubai they have managed so far, unfortunately, they have had to spend most of the money they had saved for University.

Although we have managed to find some solutions, the struggle is ongoing, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier.

One saving grace has been the ongoing coaching for many of our students from two really amazing ladies. Janine Bensouda who is based in the USA and Corrina Cross in Dubai. These ladies are professional coaches taking time out of their busy schedules to help our students face their challenges and to take positive action to better their lives. This has really lifted the morale and we have seen significant changes and development in the student’s actions and attitude.

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