Foundations and columns. Cimientos y columnas

Our first trenches, our first bricks, the first columns of our school for the tea gardens workers’ children are already real thanks to the effort and the help of many of you. At the moment it is only the boundary, but we hope that very soon we will be laying the foundations of the school and the boarding school. But we don’t forget that the real columns of all this are the faith of the many people helping us to build it with their support, their prayers and their money. And we don’t forget that the real foundations are in our faith that this is good and necessary to dignify a group of young people to whom the sacred right to an education is being denied.

Las primeras zanjas, los primeros ladrillos, las primeras columnas de nuestra escuela para los hijos de los trabajadores de las plantaciones de té son ya una realidad gracias al esfuerzo y a la ayuda de muchos de vosotros. De momento no es más que la tapia, pero esperamos que muy pronto podamos estar echando los cimientos de la escuela y el internado. Todo esto sin olvidar que las verdaderas columnas de todo esto son la fe de muchas personas que nos están ayudando a construirlo con su apoyo, con sus oraciones, con sus dineros. Y los verdaderos cimientos están en nuestra fe en que esto es bueno y necesario para dignificar a unos jóvenes a los que se les está denegando el sagrado derecho a una educación de calidad.

Tea workers’ wage hiked by 14 Taka (15 cents of euro!)

Here you are an article published in the local newspaper “The Daily Star” saying that the tea gardens workers salary will be increased by… 14 Taka (15 cents of euro) a day! What shocks me is that the worker’s leader says “We are very happy!” They are very happy with 60 cents of euro a day… OMG!

The daily wage of tea garden workers has been enhanced by Taka 14 with effect from June 1. Earlier, it was Taka 55.

The decision was taken at a tripartite meeting held at the labor ministry on May 28. Presided over by Labor and Employment Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju, the meeting was attended by leaders of the workers and representatives of tea garden owners. The meeting was called urgently following a report of The Daily Star on the poor wages of the tea garden workers and their other problems on May 25, said a tea workers’ leader. The last time wages of the tea garden workers were increased in 2009. Bijoy Prasad Banerjee, a tea workers’ leader, said, “We are very happy over the increase of the workers’ daily wage by Taka 14.”