We are very happy to put some smiles on these beautiful children’s faces in this hard time we are going through by providing them some necessary school stationery like exercise books, boxes, pens, pencils, erasers, and sharpeners to start their new academic year. Covid-19 has put us all in trouble so them as well. As their families are affected financially badly so it was hard for them to buy school items. So, we are very glad to help them as much as we can. They are so much happy to get these school items. We are very much grateful to our supporters who made this possible. Lots of love from all the children and Alingan Foundation.
The children wish you a happy Christmas and a safe and peaceful new year 2021!
We all know it’s been a rough year but all we can do is hope it gets better in 2021.The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others’ burdens, easing other’s loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas.
A contribution towards the project to help the children can be made directly to project’s bank account: https://alingan.org/donation
For more information regarding the project and programs, you may consult the website: www.alingan.org
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.
On 1st March, the children of the Alingan Foundation made a memorable day-trip to visit some historical places in Dhaka such as the Shahid Minar, Suhrawardy Udyan Ekushey book fair and Bangladesh National Museum. They enjoyed the day and experienced new things with lots of fun and pleasure.
Firstly, they visited the Shahid Minar. Though they have seen the replicas of the Shahid Minar in virtual reality, they were so happy to see it for real. They visited the book fair for the first time and were amazed to see the display of books on the stalls. They went to historical Suhrawardy Uddan and had some fun and played some games. After taking lunch, they went to the National Museum and experienced so many things that they had never seen before. They learned a great deal about their homeland and its history. The whole day tour allowed them to experience much which will let them proceed to learn more and more.
They are very grateful to the foundation for organizing such an amazing tour. They are hoping that they will be able to join more tours in Dhaka and around Bangladesh organized by the foundation so that they will be able to extended their knowledge and derive fun and pleasure in their learning.
The children are blessed to have had Mr. Davide Majeli with them twice in the last two years. He volunteered the children of the project for their education and conducted different social activities with lots of fun and pleasure. He also provided school stationery and food to the children during his visits. It was a great chance for the children to learn about foreign culture, sharing ideas and learning new things which would encourage them to continue their education and will broaden their knowledge with intensive social and moral impact. The children are very interested and enthusiastic to learn from Mr. Majeli.
It was like a dream for the children to have a brand-new computer for their studies. Mr. Majeli and his colleagues from Italy contributed to buy the computer. Children were thrilled to have such a very useful source which would help them enormously in learning. Teachers can download all the education materials and video tutorials such as learning English, good manners, health and hygiene and so on. They will be able to present all the video tutorials to the children using the computer.
We thank to Mr. Davide Majeli from the bottom of our hearts for the contribution through his colleagues and making the dream of the children come true through his direct assistance of buying the computer in Dhaka. I am sure the children will have the chance again and again to find him with them and the possibility of his colleagues who will be able to visit them one day.
The children celebrated the 2nd anniversary (2nd of May) of The Alingan Foundation with lots of fun and pleasure. They danced,sang and recited poems etc and made the anniversary memorable. They enjoyed sharing cake with one another. Some school stationery was also provided for their studies.
On the 2nd anniversary, we would like to thank all those who supported us financially and morally in running the project. We are running a charity shop in Antwerp, Belgium where we sell second-hand goods twice a week. We are blessed with people in the neighborhood who are donating their unnecessary items to the shop and we would like to thank the people who are supporting the project through buying goods from the shop. The little fund we collect from sales is certainly a great help in running the project.
We would also like to thank to all the visitors from all over the world who have already visited the project and the children and who have provided them some necessary items. We encourage everybody to visit the children or volunteer through our project in Dhaka. This is the best way for the children to gain knowledge and acquire the ability more and more to become first-class citizens.
A little contribution and support would help and encourage us to go ahead for another year with the prospect of breaking the cycle of poverty for the slum dwellers in Dhaka through education.
11-year-old Asia Akter was studying in grade 6. Asia is the eldest of 3 siblings. They live in a small room of a tin shed slum house along with her parents. Asia is a very polite and brilliant student. She has attended the Alingan project since its beginning and has participated in all the activities of the project.
Her father (40) works as rickshaw driver and her mother works as housemaid. It’s getting almost impossible for her family to continue the cost of her studies after fulfilling the basic needs such as food, house rent etc. Therefore, Asia has had to leave school and start working as a housemaid to support the family financially. After talking to her, it was pathetic to see how she wanted to attend school in preference to working. All she wants is to continue her studies and make a better career so that she can lift her family from the poverty. She has to start working with tears.
It’s still not too late to get her admitted to new school year if she is being supported for her studies. Her family is happy to send her back to school if her school tuition fees and basic needs are supported.
Asia is a genuine girl like so many other slum children who are being forced to work to survive. The helpless families wait until their children are just about old enough to work because they are not able to afford their basic needs. A little help can bring those underprivileged children to their right destiny and to break the cycle of their poverty.
An estimate of monthly costs for Asia is:
Education and Tuition- € 10 Food & Medications – € 15 Clothing and supplement- € 5 Average amount needed per month= € 30
The contribution to Asia can be made monthly/quarterly to the following project account:
Account name: Alingan Foundation Account Nummber/ IBAN: BE61363162269017 BIC/SWIFT: BBRUBEBB
Mr. Davide volunteered at Alingan Foundation from July 1st to July 25th. He flew to Dhaka on vacation and planned to help out at teaching centers and events that are aimed towards helping the deprived and underprivileged children of the Bangladeshi society. He is a resident of Sicily, Italy and a teacher of Hotel Management by profession who also has a big heart for helping out the poor in the poorest countries of the world.
Davide arrived in Dhaka on the last week of June, 2017. He found out about Alingan foundation’s volunteering options through project’s website. Upon informing the staffs of the foundation beforehand, Davide was greeted heartily by the children on his arrival in the first day. The children were delighted to find new company at the project and were excited and curious to see Davide. All they could wonder about was what they will learn from our friend about his culture and his country. The children prepared a poster for him with pictures of pizza and the Italian flag, the only thing the children knew about Italian culture. Davide was overjoyed to be gifted with such a simple, yet witty present from the kids. On the first day, Davide also brought chocolates for the children which they were very happy to receive from our friend.
Davide helped out regularly at the project by aiding the instructors in helping the children with their homework. Many children are sent off to work by their parents when they go home, so when they come to Alingan it is easier for them to finish their homework. More children were excited to come now that Davide was teaching English every week and also sharing about his culture. He kindly donated stationaries for the children, pens and pencils of different colors and styles. The children loved his teachings and presents. On one occasion Davide brought bread a Nutella, a classic Italian snack for school children. The kids had a blast as they indulged in the experience of having an Italian snack for the first time in their lives. Davide mainly taught English but on occasions he also taught the children a few Italian words and recorded them on video to send their wishes to his friends and family back in Italy. The children learnt a great deal about technology from Davide as he used to take pictures of the children with his phone. The children would look at awe at how fast sharing files is. They were blown away by the fact that you could take a picture in Bangladesh and it could be sent to Italy in seconds. During lessons, it was not only
Davide teaching the children English, but the children were also teaching him Bengali words from their school books. Everyone learnt a little bit from each other!
It was finally time to say farewell to Davide on the 25th of July. The kids were not happy to see our Italian friend go. They would certainly love for Davide to stay much longer and teach them all about his culture. For one last time, Davide read a story book to the children. It was the book “A chair for Baby Bear”. The children sat around him eagerly, and were mesmerized by the story as Ms. Lopa, who is a volunteer at Alingan, translated the story for the children. After the reading session it was the children’s turn to present something to Davide. The children prepared dances, songs, poems and plays to present to Davide on his final day at Alingan. It was a new experience for Davide to be exposed to so much Bengali culture at once. One by one the kids presented their craft to Davide. He really enjoyed the performances. Davide also brought snacks for the children on his last day to the project. Cakes, biscuits and cola were distributed among the children. It was a great experience of giving and sharing between our friend and the kids.
Finally, it was time for the children to bid farewell to Davide. They prepared a letter and a poster saying goodbye to Davide. The kids asked the instructors beforehand to translate their goodbye message in Italian, a true mark of influence left into the hearts of the children by Davide, which made the farewell of our Italian friend heartfelt and memorable. Davide plans on visiting Bangladesh again next year, and the kids look forward to meeting him again and strengthen their intercultural bonds.
Mr. Davide volunteered at Alingan Foundation from July 1st to July 25th. He flew to Dhaka on vacation and planned to help out at teaching centers and events that are aimed towards helping the deprived and underprivileged children of the Bangladeshi society. He is a resident of Sicily, Italy and a teacher of Hotel Management by profession who also has a big heart for helping out the poor in the poorest countries of the world. 
