Travel costs for young student from Bangladesh, 1860 Euros 

Report

Quote from the letter of Hazera's mentor in Bangladesh: Willy Legendre from Education International Belgium: 

"Hazera is in London and is studying International Relations at the London Metropolitan University. This is really unbelievable. Twelve years ago we have found Hazera on the streets of Cox's Bazar, fed her and sent her to school. I picked her up from school, first from primary school in Cox's Bazar, then from high school and then from college in Dhaka and now in London from university! Hazera has walked down a very difficult road to reach this major point. The child has been forced to constantly defend herself against superstition, prejudice and religious extremism. But she made it. 
Obviously life in the UK is not the same as in Bangladesh and the girl will have to adapt to her new surroundings. But she has a strong character and we are convinced she will do well. 

On behalf of Hazera and our organisation we want to thank you and your foundation for you support! Together with people like you we can win the battle against injustice and poverty. Sometimes people tell me that it is all "a drop in the ocean", but I don't agree with them. It is the top of a pyramid. A girl that has been to school knows and understands the importance of education and can pass this knowledge along to her own children, who can pass it to the next generation, etc. That makes the base of the pyramid extremely wide."

The educational sector in Bangladesh is not very developed unfortunately. Among the causes of this are the widespread corruption and the government's total lack of interest in investing in education or improving the educational sector. The children of the wealthy class have no problem because they go to the very expensive "English medium schools" in the large cities of the country, or go abroad to study. The children of "normal" people have no opportunity for good education and consequently are deprived of a good job. 

There are also safety problems for teenage girls. If girls are allowed to go to school (there is a large drop-out rate for girls in secondary school because they are frequently married off when they are 14) it is very dangerous going from home to school. Kidnapping and assault are daily occurrences, and mutilation of girls by throwing acid on them if they refuse the proposals of delinquent boys on the street is a grim reality.

In the Cox Bazaar region there are no good public schools, no good teachers and no universities. Consequently, girls who want to learn and whose parents will allow them to are sent by the Belgian organization Education Internationale Belgique (EIB), to a boarding school in one of the larger cities (e.g. Dhaka or Chittagong). Although the education of these schools is better than in Cox Bazaar it is not the quality that these very poor, sometimes orphan girls deserve, because they work unbelievably hard and their results are amazingly good.

In the case of Hazera Khanam, a girl with exceptionally good school results, there are other problems as well. Hazera would like to study International Relations to become a diplomat. That is only possible at one university in Bangladesh, Dhaka University, and this university is a virtual battlefield where armed political factions regularly attack one another with weapons and homemade bombs, killing and wounding one another. The riots are the source of another problem: students who have finished their studies must sometimes wait years before they can take their final examinations which are regularly disrupted or postponed.

Hazera is one of the best and most motivated pupils of the EIB. She had a sad childhood: severe malnutrition of the children in her family led to the death of two of her brothers and Hazera herself is left with a slight case of rickets. Despite all of her setbacks she has an iron will and wants to study to make something of her life.

Through her hard work and the efforts of the staff of EIB in Bangladesh, Hazera has been granted a scholarship and a room on the campus of the London Metropolitan University in England. She has met all of the admission requirements and is ready to leave. All that she needs are funds for the travel and visa costs and the expenses of an extra course in English. Total price of this is 1860 Euros.

Total € 1860,-- 

adopted by the general fund of Moments of Joy

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