Bangladesh

The Every Home for Christ Community Development program in Bangladesh targets whole families and includes 3 schools and vocational training centres in Dhaka and one in a country area. Over many years these schools have educated around 1,000 children each year –  from extremely poor families (mostly from the slum areas) and enabled the women to gain a skill in sewing and earn some money. The schools set a good standard and almost all children pass the government-set exams each year.  Girls are especially targeted so that they have the opportunity to be educated, as are the children of rickshaw pullers and the unemployed.

For more than 40 years EHC has partnered with Bangladesh EHC, a registered NGO whose programs and budgets are approved each 5 years by the Bangladeshi government. All staff and teachers are nationals from Bangladesh being paid, along with the program expenses, from funds raised in Australia and New Zealand.

We are delighted to report that, as a result of this program:

• 1200 boys and girls each year in 4 primary schools in Bangladesh have received a basic education, school uniforms, daily lunches, health and hygiene training, access to clean water and toilets and new clothes at Christmas.
• Many of the children have progressed to higher education and become engineers, doctors and government workers or are working in other professional positions.
• 200 unskilled women each year have been trained in sewing and embroidery skills, enabling them to earn an income, often at a clothing factory or by being enabled to buy their own sewing machine.
• Rickshaw pullers have been able to own their own rickshaw or van, pay off their debts, pay back 50% of the rickshaw, leave the slums, provide an education for their children and, in many cases, start their own business.

We are grateful for the donors and sponsors who make all this possible.