Meider Jono Asha – Hope for Girls – Dhaka, BANGLADESH (12 girls) school
“Thank you very much for your kindness to me. You know most of the people of our country are poor. They are suffer many trouble in their daily affairs. I am also one of them. So thank you very much to help me to build up my career life.”
– Akhi, 14 years old
Meider Jonno Asha, also known as Hope for Girls, has educated upwards of 350 illiterate teenage girls, offered extensive work training to more than 100, trained their own leaders and teachers and supported working girls and their families by offering education sponsorships up to university level. Supporting and advising Bangladeshi women through matters that befall women in every third world country, the charity measure the success of their work by comparing ‘Asha’ girls to the many others who have not benefitted from such support.
PAWA began supporting Meider Jonno Asha in 2015 with an exciting project to open a free coaching class in Maths, Bangla, English, and Computing skills for 24 teenage girls within their Literacy Centre. PAWA was able to fund the purchase of two refurbished laptop computers and teaching materials, to hire three teaching staff and pay for extra premises running costs. A school sponsorship programme was also created for girls aged 13 and above who were unable to attend school or struggling to stay in secondary school. Sponsorship covered an initial uniform and shoe supplement, enrolment fee and monthly assistance and PAWA sponsored 15 girls in the programme.
As the project has developed PAWA has continued to support the girls at Meider Jonno Asha, and currently 12 girls will be supported on the school sponsorship programme and thus helped to stay in education, particularly important for the older students. Covid 19 has led to greater emphasis on the Literacy Centre which offers free coaching to these sponsored students and to other girl students in the area and provides a place of security for study, advice and social interaction.
