The Young Hardworking Poor of Rural Bangladesh

Photos

Self-Employed - A 16 Year Old and His Tea Shop

see larger image

uploaded by uncultured

• 

  uploaded by uncultured | add comment

• 

  uploaded by uncultured | add comment

• 

  uploaded by uncultured | add comment

• 

  uploaded by uncultured | add comment

• 

  uploaded by uncultured | add comment

• 

  uploaded by uncultured | add comment

• 

  uploaded by uncultured | add comment

• 

  uploaded by uncultured | add comment

• 

  uploaded by uncultured | add comment

• 

  uploaded by uncultured | add comment

Videos

The Young Hardworking Poor of Rural Bangladesh

see larger video

sourced by uncultured

• 

  Created by uncultured | add comment

• 

  Created by uncultured | add comment

In rural Bangladesh, eight years old is old enough to start putting food on the table. That was the first, but not last, surprise in my recent trip to a rural village in Bangladesh called Madhupur.

Madhupur is a small village in the heart of Bangladesh (a small South Asian country with a population of over 150 million people). In many respects, this small village is a microcosm of the entire nation: it's beautiful, it's lush, it's green, and it's very poor. Shortly after my arrival in this village, one of my relatives (who had accompanied me on this trip) was approached by a family in desperation. One of the local villagers had died recently and his family was too poor to properly dispose of the body. Muslim tradition calls for a body to be wrapped in cloth and be buried as soon as possible. However, being too poor to even buy the smallest of plots, this family was forced to leave the body to rot in the open. We helped purchase a plot of land and this villager was finally laid to rest. As shocking as this situation was, it only served to renew my sense of purpose for my work here in Bangladesh. Preventing a tragedy like this means helping the poor from the start - not at the last minute.

Those familiar with my work in Bangladesh know that my work is self-funded through personal savings and family donations. I'm not an NGO or charity - I'm just a guy trying to make a difference. For my work in Madhupur, I decided to spend some money I had originally saved up for a Xbox 360. After careful thought, I decided it was best to spend this money to help disadvantaged children who were trying to earn an education. Education (even just learning to read and write) is a proven means in helping to break out of the cycle of poverty. Unfortunately, many poor children Bangladesh are forced to choose between going to school or putting food on the table. While forfeiting an education in order to join the work force as a child laborer helps supplement a family's income, in the long run it serves to create a cycle of poverty. It doesn't take long for a child to drop out of school once they enter the full-time workforce. However, in this rural village, I got to meet 30 kids who were trying to both study and work full-time.

These 30 kids attend a free part-time school formed by a group of local community leaders who banned together to form a NGO. These kids (some as young as 8 and others as old as 16) come each day between 7 am and 9 am and learn from the single school teacher hired by the NGO. The school teacher herself is paid a mere $15 US (a month) for teaching these children English, Bengali and Math - all without aid of a blackboard. Even though these kids and their families are poor - they are not all working poorly. One of the kids (a young boy by the name of Shafiqul) works in a garage fixing big industrial trucks. When the garage owner saw me filming Shafiqul as he welded without a mask - he quickly produced a face shield for him to use. While many of these children work at day jobs, others are into business for themselves or were working in a family business. One of the students, a 16 year old by the name of Johnny, started a business by setting up a tea stand just in front of the part-time school.

If ingenuity and hard-work alone could pull a person out of the cycle of poverty - poverty would have been eradicated long ago. They need help to break out of this cycle. After being introduced to these 30 part-time students, I decided to hold an informal town hall style meeting. Everyone gathered in a circle as I asked one question: "what can I do to help?". At first I thought everyone would be too nervous to speak up. To my surprise, it turned out that everyone started speaking up all at once. The first student to speak up asked for books. This was followed by a request for pens and pencils. One student wisely suggested that the teacher needs a blackboard, while another student had asked for help to pay for prescription medication. The kids had such an amazing sense of energy and enthusiasm throughout this meeting. Despite the laundry list of requests - the total cost of these items were less than $300. It doesn't take much to make a difference here.

My biggest regret was that I had already spent some of my money elsewhere helping other kids. As seen in part two of the attached video (titled "Working to Help the Poor in Rural Bangladesh"), I wasn't able to pay for everything the students had asked. But what little I did spend went a long way.

As always, I will keep the NowPublic community in the loop about my work here. I also have a blog where I post updates. My apologies for not posting this earlier - I wanted to wait until I had Part 2 on YouTube as well before putting this on NP.