A primary school in the tea gardens. Una escuela primaria en una plantación de té

Visiting the parish's primary school at Hooglichora Tea State, with Sister Irene Naunar, RNDM, who is in charge of the project (36 primary schools inside the tea plantations). We, Marist Brothers, will join this effort to improve education in those schools, as part of the project that we are starting to build in Moulovibazar. Note the poor condition in which the teachers have to work (no benches, no electricity, no facilities, no books, no notebooks, a single teacher for all the academic levels…

Visita a la escuela primaria parroquial de la plantación de té en Hooglichora, con la Hermana Irene Naunar, encargada del seguimiento de las 36 escuelitas primarias en las plantaciones de té. Nosotros, los Hermanos Maristas, trabajamos junto con ella para mejorar las condiciones de la educación en esas escuelas, como parte importante de nuestro proyecto de construir una escuela secundaria en Moulovibazar. Fíjate en las paupérrimas condiciones en las que los maestros tienen que trabajar, sin bancos, ni pupitres, sin electricidad, sin servicios básicos, sin libros ni cuadernos, un solo maestro para todos los niveles juntos…

They do not have any chances. No tienen ninguna posibilidad

Survey result shows that education status of the tea gardens area is very poor. A major portion of adult garden people (65-80%) are illiterate and 20-35% people did not cross even primary level of education. Not a single worker was found who studied in high school since they have to fight for their livelihood from very early age. They do not have any chances to utilize their skill in intellectual level and interact with educated people.

Encuestas realizadas muestran que el estado de la educación en la zona de las plantaciones de té es muy pobre. Una gran parte de los adultos de las explotaciones (65-80%) son analfabetos y 20-35% nunca terminó ni siquiera la escuela primaria. No se encontró un solo trabajador que haya estudiado en la escuela secundaria ya que tienen que luchar por su supervivencia desde muy temprana edad. No tienen ninguna posibilidad de utilizar sus habilidades intelectuales e interactuar con gente educada.

Education is the only way out. La educacion es la unica salida

A person without education is easily manipulated. Una persona sin educación es fácilmente manipulable

Education is the only way out of poverty

“The wage is low.  It is not enough to live on,” says Ruchina Dufo lethargically.  She has probably said this many times yet nothing has changed.  With this starvation wage which the 43 year old earns as a tea picker, she has to feed her four children and her sick mother.  Her sick mother is paralyzed from her hips to her feet so she spends her monotonous days on a roughly hewn wooden flat bed.  It is the only piece of furniture in the house.  A couple of sheet metal pots, a kerosene lamp, a blanket, which she spreads across the mud floor when it’s time to sleep – they own no more.

Ruchina confesses that she sometimes reaches her limit.  “But I have to go on,” she says.  Her face shows no expression. What alternative does she have?  Her parents before her, worked as tea pickers.

“The biggest problem is the house,” Ruchina explains soberly: “If I would look for different work, I would have no roof over my head anymore.”

Most people think alike.  This is the right of the tea companies.  The rent free living, the isolated villages and the many years of refusal by the government to allow schools here all created this dependency.

For herself, claims Ruchina, she has no hope left. Maybe her children will experience better times.  She knows education is the only way out of poverty. 

This is an extract taken from the German made Kontinente Magazin, specialized in Missions.

Our dream

The Marist Brothers arrived to Bangladesh 6 years ago. It was a new country for us. It has been necessary to start everything from scratch, including learning Bengali language, networking, meeting people, letting us know, getting used to the climate, to the food, to the idiosyncrasy of the wonderful people of this country, the most densely populated in the world.

During these first years we have been collaborating with other institutions (in Pirgacha, Dinajpur, Srimongol and Mymensingh), learning about the Bangladeshi educational system, studying the many possibilities and proposals that have been offered to us.

In the range of possibilities to work, we have finally chosen one: to provide education to the children of the workers in the tea plantations.

Why this choice? The criteria were as follows:

- Choosing a particularly needy population group

- Going there where others could not or did not want to go

- The workers in the tea plantations in Bangladesh are possibly the most disadvantaged social group in the country. The conditions in which they live and work border on what we might call modern slavery; their conditions are much tougher than those of employees of the textile workshops, sadly famous after the incidents at Savar (Dhaka), Pope Francis did not hesitate to describe it as slavery and has mobilized the sensitivity of much of Western societies.

The project we want to carry out consists of a secondary school for the children of tea plantations workers, and boarding house for boys and girls.

For this purpose we have located a site in a small town called Moulovibazar, in the region of Sylhet, just adjacent to tea plantations. We must buy the land and then build the first stage, consisting of a school (ten classrooms, two floors) and boarding school for girls (capacity 100 people, two floors). The rest of the project, which would include the boarding school for boys and the expansion of the school, will come in a second phase in the medium term.