NEW ID CARDS FOR THE CHILDREN AT TDP

After assigning ID numbers, yesterday new ID card was provided to all students of TDP School. Each card contains specific information of
that particular student i.e. Photograph, ID number, Name & Blood-group.Students are strictly advised to wear ID card while staying at school and no students will be allowed entering school without the ID card.

The number placed with this ID card will be used for all the official purposes including sponsorship for the students.

TDP School coordinators & respective class teachers distributed those cards among the students and Julie Tartaggia, TDP Volunteer helped them.

ADMISSION EXAM TO ENROLL NEW STUDENTS AT TDPS

At first TDP Family Counselor & TDP School authority had verified and evaluated the real societal statuesque, economical standing and health issues of the children who were asked to contact with their ID card. These cards were provided earlier but due to seat limitation they had to wait. Finally, 37 children are selected to sit for a one hour written test on 7/11/2009 from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.Students attended exam under the supervision of TDPS teachers. After evaluating their written-scripts each examinee faced a brief verbal interview with the Principal & two other senior teachers to bear out their communicative skill. Students, obtaining the necessary requirements will be placed to respective classes according to their merit afterwards. These new students will join their regular class soon after the approaching half yearly exam.Concerned parents were found eagerly waiting outside the school gate while their kids were attending exam.

GIFT & DONATION

It happens often that visitors come at TDP suddenly with handful of gifts & donations. Kimberley and Stephen flew to Bangladesh as they are cabin crew of Emirates Airline and visited TDP with some gifts for the kids.However, their brief hang around the project couldn't resist them to have fun with the kids and share a photo session with them.Before leaving they donated BDT 4000/= to the project and promised to bring more gifts next time; they are keen to sponsor some children as well.
TDP always respects these good hearts!!!

LIFE MOVES ON AT TDP

Winter is approaching that demands extra care of our body especially the skin. TDP finds it essential to provide our children something to make them comfortable with this dry weather. We offer them body lotion, shampoo and moisturizing cream those came as donation in different times to TDP.Meanwhile, The Dhaka Project has decided to give more children the opportunity to get education and has started procedures to enroll students at TDPS for the coming session. This time we are giving preference to the students who got ID card earlier but due to limited seat capacity could not get admitted. However, TDP is expecting that through this process at least 40 new children will be enrolled after successful completion of admission test. In other sections of TDPS i.e. Day-care & Play-group also some new faces have come out after being verified by TDP Family Counselor & Doctor.TDP is always alive with the presence of numbers of volunteers with us.
Last month we had Engelbert, Nikita, Dulce, Julie & Micheal at the project. They worked in different sectors like education policy, administration, teaching etc. Julie Tartaggia is still working here with organizational infrastructure policy.
TDP has always been supportive to the volunteers with their purpose.

HAND-WASH DEMONSTRATION & POSTER-DRAWING COMPETITION

A Demonstration & Art Competition to celebrate the aura of World Hand-washing Day was held at The Dhaka Project School roof-top yesterday. The first part of the program was a practical session to revise & demonstrate several issues like,...
a) what the children know about hand wash?
b) how to prevent transmission of Bacteria or germs?
12 groups comprising 5 students in each, demonstrated how to wash hand properly after an oral instruction by Faria, TDP Family Counselor.Later on, all the participants joined a Poster Drawing Competition to draw a poster on the topic – Hand-wash and Hygiene. Children started painting their mind on the art paper. They were given 45 minutes to finish their drawing. After that, the judges selected three representations to award the winners. It is worth noting that, judges were amazed by the skill these youngsters had shown and got startled to find out the best.Before the prize giving session, Faria gave a brief speech to remind the children about necessary steps to be followed for a hygienic daily life.
Then Dr. Jahid, TDP Medical In-charge announced the name of the winners. Each member of Second Runner-up group got a beautiful Soap-case.
1st Runner-up group got 100 ml Shampoo for each.
The winner group was given 5 colorful T-shirts which were sponsored by Ferre, TDP Volunteer.Afterward, 60 packets of biscuits were distributed among all the participants who took part in the competition.
We thank all the teachers and student volunteers for their help in organizing the event.
A very special thanks to Ferre once again.

COMMUNITY WEEK-LAST DAY

'We will share what we have learnt' – keeping this message in mind, students of TDP School observed the day as “Signature Day” on 15th October 2009.
Objective of the day was to identify illiterate individual and teach them to write their name as a signature in the register copies. Then they would be given a sheet to practice writing their name on it.
There were 4 groups comprising 3 students in each group moved towards The TDP school lane, Gawair Bazar Road, Kazibari Road & Majibari Road with a teacher in-charge to supervise that the students followed the instruction and executed their duty in the proper way.Students were excited & enthusiastic in performing their task and almost 100 people of different age and profession registered their signature. Since the children were the protagonists of this social event the community people co-operated them with delight.
We thank Dulce, TDP volunteer for promoting and encouraging the students.With this event the week long “Community Service Week” came to an end after successfully celebrating different social awareness programs through out the week.

WORLD HANDWASHING DAY

The simple act of washing hands could save thousands of children's lives every day, mostly in Asia and Africa, the United Nations said on Thursday, the eve of the Global Hand-Washing Day.
According to UNICEF an estimated 5,000 children die daily from diarrhea, but half of those deaths could be prevented if they washed their hands with soap before meals and after going to the toilet. To raise awareness on the issue, the UN children's fund launched the Global Hand-Washing Day last year.
The Dhaka Project, celebrated this day on Thursday, 15th October to affirm their consent on this regard. To commemorate the day, TDP distributed Soap, Tooth-paste & Tooth-brash among the children to keep the hygiene records as high as possible.
Earlier, the respective class teachers describe children the importance of hygiene and hand-washing in particular in the classroom. Teachers addressed them that hand-washing with soap is the most efficient intervention and the least costly way to prevent deaths by diarrhea as well as from cholera and pneumonia. So, they were asked to keep themselves clean & wash their hands with soap before meals and after going to the toilet each time in proper manner.
TDP believes the children are always those who, once at home among their family members and community, will introduce a simple gesture that saves lives.

THANKS LAILA

Laila Farzana Moonmoon, has been with us as a volunteer.
She is an architect who works in New York and has a good heart.
She really has a lot of patience to our kids at The Dhaka Project, who are very happy for having her with them.
And she kindly contributed with 5,000.00 TK to our work as a donation.Thank you to Laila Farzana on behalf of The Dhaka Project Kids !

COMMUNITY WEEK-DAY V

On the fifth day of "Community Service Week", TDP addressed a most vital issue like "Community Medical Service". This time, a TDP medical team comprising doctors, nurse and 5 student volunteers from TDP School visited Chalaban Community. The team had medical kit, emergency medicine and other necessary equipments with them.Dr. Jahid, of TDP Medical Centre gave thorough check-up to the adults of the community and prescribed remedy where necessary. On this regard, the team provided some medicine as well and distributed Vitamin Syrup.
Moreover, the community was offered free dental check-up at the same time. Dr. Amirul, Dentist of TDP Medical Centre was in-charge of it. He also suggested prescription and conferred some instant treatment.
More than 50 people had this check-up with proper recommendation. A TDP team & the student volunteers coordinated the event.This program helped the community to an extent that was proved as people were waiting in line with patience for health check-up; next time TDP will be by their side with more facilities.

COMMUNITY WEEK-DAY IV

The 'Community Service Week' of TDP is speeding through. Yesterday the celebrators were TDP School students who moved with the aim to 'Let's Clean Bangladesh' which was the tag line for the day.Total 45 students were divided into 3 groups who worked in three different communities i.e. Peyarabagan, MajhiBari & KaziBari, under the supervision of three respective teachers in each group. A TDP team was monitoring the event.
Students were all prepared with hand-gloves, masks and crown made of chart paper on head with 'Let's Clean Bangladesh' written on it. Each group had waste-paper basket and spade with them to collect scattered junk from roads and open places; they deposited those in the garbage-drums later on.The community appraises this approach with heart. TDP believes that Children through work in practical field will learn to keep the society clean and can teach others as well.
Special thanks to Ferre, TDP volunteer for encouraging our children.

COMMUNITY WEEK-DAY III

The Dhaka Project is successfully observing the declared “Community Service Week”. On the third day of the program, it was scheduled as “Listening to Sufferings of the People” & “Registering the Problems Encountered”.
This time TDP team went to Gawair MajhiBari slum community to visit their current standing. On this occasion, we preferred those places mostly inhabited by the underprivileged. All these families live in rented house where a single room cost 800 BDT. Average monthly income of these families is not more than 3000 BDT and in most of the places either father or mother is employed.Rasel & Arif, students of TDP School have two more siblings and they all live in a single room with their parents. Azizur Rahman, their father said, “Being a day-laborer, I used to earn 150-200 BDT per day. Few days back, I slipped from the roof of a building while working and my hand got injured. Now, I can’t work full day though I need to buy medicine as well. I don’t know how I will pay house-rent of the coming month”.There are other problems also. 57 years old Joynal Abedin, working as a Mason use to earn 250 BDT each day and live in a rented single room. He has 5 children and Shanta, Joynal’s wife is a house-maid and they are expecting one more toddler! Shanta was complaining, “He doesn’t prefer family-planning or visiting doctors and never listen to me”.TDP team monitored all these community issues, listened to their problems, gave necessary advice where needed and took notes for future. People shared their feelings with utter interest and thanked TDP for its concern.
The Dhaka Project thanks those disadvantaged populace for sharing their time with us.

COMMUNITY WEEK-DAY II

Second day of week-long 'Community Week' has just passed. The event started from 2:30 onwards. TDP team located Most Unhygienic Places around the community; Peyarabagan Slums. TDP team along with local cleaner collected scattered garbage into poly-bags and carried them away to particular places through Van; then spray bleaching powder to make the place germ-free. They also spray liquid insecticide to the possible risky areas to destroy mosquitoes & other insects.After the cleansing, TDP team asked the community to keep the place clean by using garbage-drums already placed there. Some of the families of that community have children studying at TDP School; TDP team lectured them why this cleansing is necessary if they need to be protected from various diseases like Diarrhea, Malaria, Dengue etc. Our enthusiastic volunteer Ferre promoted the event.TDP hopes this initiative will help to build an effective rapport to sustain a long-term development within the community.

ABU HANIF'S ENGLISH SCHOOL !

A long time ago a student of The Dhaka Project, Abu Hanif, told me that he had a school of himself in his native village.
I thought his English was not good and that he meant that he went to school over there.Sometimes he repeated his statement and even asked for help.
During Summer holiday I was invited by another student to his native village. It happened to be the same village of Abu.
Still unaware I visited the place.Towards the end of the day we went to Abu Hanif's local area.
What I saw there was exactly like he had told me months before.
Children walked around with a plastic bag, a pencil and some papers. All things were provided by Abu.
On the paper I saw the English alphabet written.
Whenever Abu returns to his village he commits himself to educate the children around his grandparents’ house.
Feedback given by Ferre !

COMMUNITY WEEK

As a recurring responsibility, in the last Monthly Meeting it was decided that from 10th October to 15th October will be dedicated as ‘Community Week’. Throughout the week The Dhaka Project team will be conducting different social work around the community. For this, teams are set up with definite work-plan to be executed. Today is the inauguration of this week-long program. We have two firm duties according to the scheduled plan, one is “Let’s Clean The Dhaka Project” and another is “Distribution of Adult Clothes”.From the morning, the entire TDP team including all staffs, attendants start cleansing The Dhaka Project office & TDP School (all sections). Apart from regular cleaning by the TDP attendants, this time every employee of the office cleans his/her surrounding, desk and electronic equipments. All the Garbage Drums placed around the community are washed up with bleaching powder. Later, a team commenced from TDP Office to Nursery & TDP School Senior Section building to spray liquid pesticide around the places.Second session of the day began at 2:30 pm. TDP team visited a clustered slum community around Peyarabagan to distribute clothes for the adults as gifts. This was a surprise visit from TDP out of social responsibility. More than 50 families got clothes for their adult members. The family members’ were excited & pleased with this sudden present.
The Dhaka Project assured them that next time we will be by their side with more resource as soon as donation arrives.

MOVIE NIGHT

The Dhaka Project always tries to reach the children with excitement. After a brief discussion, a team is formed to give the children an experience to be remembered. What if we offer them a movie night!! We selected the roof of TDP School-senior section building as the place where the children could enjoy a movie. Since we were going to display the movie on a projector screen, it was obvious to show the movie when darkness prevailed. So, it’s fixed on 8th of October at 6:00 pm.
Then, we had to choose which movie to play. We gave it a thought and after a brief brain-storming we got the queue. Let them have a ride to the magic world; yes, we offered them to be mesmerized by the magic spell of “Harry Potter-Chamber of Secrets”. Children were crowding from 5:30 pm at the TDP School gate & impatiently waiting for the show.
However, the show began exactly at 6:00 pm.
Something more was waiting….Ferre, children’s favorite volunteer, offered some snacks & beverage (Tang, an orange drink) for the children during the interval. The Dhaka Project gravely appreciates his concern for the kids.
What about the children? They were entirely overwhelmed by the film as all heads remained unmoved except bursting out in laughter or shivered with thrilling until the last scene and couldn’t escape the spell of magic even after the end!!
Success of The Dhaka Project's initiative was painted on the face of delighted children, enjoying their moment.
We dearly thank the entire TDP team, attendants & guards for all their efforts to ensure the hit of the program. We appreciate the dedication of TDP School teacher, Mr. Nurul Abedin & Ms. Mirza Sonia for being part of this event. Once again we thank Ferre for the kindness he has shown towards our children.

VOTE FOR MARIA !

This is the high time to show tribute to Maria Conceicao, Founder of The Dhaka Project who help the slum dwellers of Dhaka to lift themselves out of the downward spiral of life and provide them with basic education and life skills such as, social, vocational, and work skills as well as shelter, clean water, nutritious food, medical and dental care.
We are proud that, she is nominated as one of the four finalists for the prestigious award, Emirates Woman of the Year Awards 2009 in Humanitarians - Charity category by the Emirates Airlines for her contribution in social development & poverty alleviation.
To support this concern, The Dhaka Project is declaring this month of October as the “Voting Month” for Maria. Many parents of the 500 children who are at TDP School as well as more than 80 staffs of the Project will be casting their votes throughout the month; we will also encourage all well-wishers to join this voting.
The Dhaka Project believes that, she is undoubtedly the best runner for this award. We are requesting everyone to visit the following link to cast their vote.

http://www.emirateswoman.ae/awards/select_nominee.asp

The deadline for voting is on November,1st.

Thank you for your vote!

COMMUNITY LAVATORY

Jorina is studying in STD-III at TDP School; she lives with her family near Gawair kazi Bari road. It’s not their own house though; they built temporary residence at someone’s land on payment. Three other families also stay around the place. What so shocking is, none of those families ever had a proper toillet facilities of their own! These families have been living there always suffering from diarrhea. There was only an open hole covered by mat near their place with full of dirty water and worms as the toilet. When it rains there's no way to use this so-called toillet.
The most regrettable thing was, women of the houses had to wait till dark to refresh their excuses/ do toillet in the nearest bush. They had no personal sanitation and often sneered by their neighbors.Since the place is very near to The Dhaka Project guesthouse, a team visited there few days back. From 25th of September, a group of local mason & laborer started working and set up a well-built toilet by 1st October.A total of BDT 27,550 was spent on this regard that came from Dubai as donation; The Dhaka Project thanks all those generous souls who help these poor families having hygienic sanitation.
The entire event was executed by Rashedul Islam, Administrative Asst. Manager & Canteen Manager, Mr. Apu Sarwar.
Our dedicated volunteer Brendan, and Shimul, also helped a lot to give these poor families proper sanitation facility.

SCHOOL RESUME AFTER VACATION

The Dhaka Project School reopens today after 10 days of vacation with festive attire. At the school, hundreds of little souls are found chirping around wearing colorful dresses.Students decorated their own class with colorful balloons, festoons, stickers & ribbons; today they were allowed to act upon whatever their desire in guidance of the respective class teachers; they sang, danced and recited poems.As a get together after Eid & Puja vacation, The Dhaka Project has decided earlier to make this festive moment more ornamented offering a treat for the entire school. Besides their daily breakfast, today the youngsters have enjoyed something more. All the students along with the teachers & office-staffs were offered a snack-pack comprising cookies, an Apple & a piece of Jilapi.Earlier these snacks items were packaged by the TDP staffs-attendants on the roof-top of TDP School with the direct execution by Administrative Asst. Manager, Mr. Rashedul Islam & Mr. Azad, Senior Project Officer.
The Dhaka Project feels happy to count the smile of almost 500 students once they have got the snacks.

CHULLI WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM

Information gathered during and after the delivery of a hand washing and hygiene program for all TDP school students indicated that many families are not boiling water prior to drinking as a routine. Some families indicated that this was due to time constraints and lack of money to purchase extra fuel for this purpose. For this reason the Health Care Team decided that a safe drinking water education program was needed for the families and guardians of TDP students. The students know clearly that only boiled water is safe but they must rely on their guardians to provide them with boiled water.
It was decided that it would be necessary to educate the community around the importance of always boiling drinking water and to also provide a simple means of accessing safe drinking water. Whilst researching the topic the team looked at using iodine or chlorine purification of water as a possible option but decided against this when information about the chulli water treatment system was found, see below. While families cook their meals 30 litres of safe drinking water is produced by the chulli water treatment system.
The Chulli water treatment System for household pasteurization of drinking water was invented by a Bangladeshi, Professor Mohammad Fakhrul Islam and is now being used widely throughout Bangladesh Oxfam and other international NGOs as well as other developing countries. The details of research of the system which effectively removes coliform bacteria from ground water can be found in J HEALTH POPUL NUTR 2006 Sep;24(3):356-362.
The Chullli Water Treatment system is available from an organisation called WagTech so a visit was made to see their test site in Savar. Three staff from Wagtech then travelled to Gawair and showed TDP staff how to install the chulli water treatment system. A working model was installed at a group of houses close to TDP office so that families could be called more easily to attend education and information sessions. Installation took place on Friday 21st August 2009, a holiday, so we are very grateful for the time given by Wagtech staff David Nunley, Asia Pacific Rim Representative , Mr Ali Ashraf, Proprietor and Shoed for taking the time to travel to Gawair and supervise installation as well as donating the original test chulli water treatment system.
TDP plans for all families who cook with chulli to have access to a chulli water treatment system and is asking families to contribute what they can toward the cost of the chulli so that they will have ownership and ensure it is maintained and cared for. Families who do not have financial means but would benefit from the water treatment system will be provided with the unit.
A survey of all TDP families is currently taking place as part of the Safe Drinking Water program and a wider Water and Sanitation project looking at presence and quality of water supply, latrines, and cooking facilities so that a plan can be put in place to make improvements to the lives of TDP student families. Significant fundraising will be needed make improvements as several families have already been identified as having no toilet facilities or unsafe and inadequate facilities.
It must also be noted that Brendan Heery visited TDP as a volunteer at the same time the HCC was planning their Safe Drinking Water program, he has a particular interest in Water and sanitation and is an engineer so he continues to be involved during visits to Gawair and from his base in Dubai.

CREATING AWARENESS ABOUT SWINE-FLU & EYE-SCREENING

Thanks to Leo Club of Dhaka Heaven Plus !
The program was a conscious contribution of Leo Club of Dhaka Heaven Plus as their part of Community Service Projects to the children of The Dhaka Project School. The main aim of the program was to create awareness and explain the ways to take precaution against Swine-Flu & perform a handy Eye-Screening session.Young members of Leo Club demonstrated a presentation on the causes & effects of Swine-Flu. They discussed about the ways to prevent this disease & also gave tips about some general health issues i.e. not to eat low quality candies, food those are expired, etc. They came up with some interesting stories to make the children understand how such things can be harmful. The students listened to them very carefully and it seemed they learned from the presentation. TDP School teachers performed a remarkable sense of duty by encouraging the children.Later on, Leo Club organized an Eye-Screening session for the young-buds of TDP School. Two professional eye specialists from Lions Eye Institute & Hospital maintained thorough check-up of children's eye-sight & prescribed recommendation if needed. Leo Club members executed the event; Mr. Shimul, Senior Operation Officer, Dr. Jahid, Medical In-charge and MS. Faria, TDP Family Counselor facilitated both the event.
Once again thanks a lot to the Leo Club of Dhaka Heaven Plus for thinking and caring about our kids.

EYE-SCREENING AT TDP SCHOOL

The Dhaka Project is always concerned about the children health-care issues beside the academic lesson provided to the youngsters of The Dhaka Project School.
Henceforth, an Eye-Screening session has been held on 12/9/09 at the school.
Jane from ICEE (International Centre for Eye care Education) and Daniel, a volunteer from AYAD (Australian Youth Ambassador for Development) made this event possible.Students from Play-group to Std- VII were present to check-up their eyes.The event was divided in two parts.
First of all, Daniel and Julie, (Julie is another volunteer working at TDP), examined the children’s difficulties in reading books or writings on White-board in the classroom through asking them few basic questions. Teachers of TDP School were interpreting for the convenience.Then children were sent to Jane for instrumental diagnosis one by one. She tested the eye-sight of the children. She filled the data of each student & prescribed recommendation if necessary.
Dentist of TDP, Amirul Islam helped her on this occasion.
Thanks to Jane, Daniel, Julie and to ICEE and AYAD for having taken care of our children's eyes.

IT WORKSHOP FOR TDP SCHOOL CHILDREN

An IT Workshop for the senior students of TDP School was held on 12/9/09 at the computer lab.
Luke & Peter, two volunteers from AYAD (Australian Youth Ambassador for Development) took initiative to give fundamental computer literacy to the students.They taught them how to work with MS Office, especially, MS Word & MS Power Point.
Later on, Sarah, another volunteer from AYAD, joined them and demonstrated a Power Point presentation to explain the issues more delicately.Students were eagerly listening to them and using the techniques enthusiastically.
IT Manager, Rashedul Ahsan and Mohabbat Jahan, IT Teacher of TDP School facilitated the program.
Thanks to Luke, Peter, Sarah and to the AYAD organization for this important action !