Welcome reception:
There were happy and excited faces!
The children of Alingan Foundation were ready to welcome the founder of the project Mr. Palash Roy, after 2 years and with him, one of the supporters Mr. Detlef Schultze on 20th December 2019. After lots of preparation and initiatives, the children made the reception memorable. And how well they did! They presented the best of their talents performing, singing, dancing and so on wearing colorful festive dresses. After a short motivational speech by Mr. Roy and Mr. Schultze, the children were provided with some clothes which were brought by them from Belgium. Food and drinks were also provided at the end of the occasion. One of the children led the whole occasion.
Afterwards, with a group of children, they visited some of the children’s families in the slum. They live in a massive slum in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh where about 100,000 people live. It was shocking to see their poor living conditions. The whole family lives in one room with some sleeping on a bed and the rest sleeping on the floor. Water penetrates when it rains. Some children drop out from school and start child labour for the family to survive. Some girls get married very young.
After visiting the families, it was time to leave for the day – but how? The children seemed to keep them forever. However, they promised to visit them again soon.
Excursion:
Another day full of joy and happiness as promised!
This took the form of an excursion with the children to the planetarium in Dhaka. We all traveled to that place by bus, and on the way, there was lots of fun, dancing and singing and so on. In the planetarium, they watched a short documentary about the struggles to make Bangladesh free from west Pakistan under the leadership of Sheikh Mujubor Rahman, the father of the present prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. Then they watched an exciting show teaching about the universe of galaxies, stars and black holes in space.
The children are always glad to take part in different activities that bring them out of the slum for a few hours or a day.
Again, it was time to say goodbye as they had to return to Belgium in the evening of the same day. It was so hard for them to leave as children never let them go.
After the visits to the children, it was crystal clear that those children need help for their living and education as well as they need love and care. The children didn’t want to leave Mr. Roy and Mr. Schultze because they experienced love, care and freedom, which is not a regular occurrence in their daily life in the slum.
