Farjana Akter is an outstanding eighth-grade student. She is so focused and diligent in her studies that she received GPA 5 (the highest possible) on her first board exam in class 5. She came to Dhaka with her parents, like so many others, with the expectation of a better future. Her father owns a little grocery store, while her mother works as a housekeeper for others. Despite their little income, they ensure that their children attend school. They just have one room to live in. Farjana wants to continue her education and has high plans for the future.
“In the future, I want to be a doctor and help people. I want to please my parents.” – Farjana said.
Thousands of prospective children, including Farjana Akter, have dreams but lack the resources to realize them. So, if you want to be a part of realizing these children’s and Fajana’s dreams, you can consult the following links:
We can’t help everyone but everyone can help someone!
***The Alingan Foundation is an independent not-for-profit project, with no religious or political affiliations, whose mission is to support against poverty and vulnerability through the local organizations in Bangladesh.
Samia Akter is a 14 years old girl who lives in a slum called Korail in Dhaka city in Bangladesh. She is currently studying at T&T Adarsha Girls High School in class 9. She is very brilliant and very attentive in her studies. She wants to become a doctor in the future. Samia has a brother named Tapon Islam and a sister named Roji Aktar. Samia’s father is Mofijul Islam (48) who does not work now due to his sickness and Bokrul Begum (46) is her mother who is a housemaid. Tapon Islam, Samia’s brother is a rickshaw puller and married, he is living with his own family and Roji Aktar is also a student like Samia. Samia’s mother lost her full-time permanent job as a result of the pandemic, and now she only works part-time and earns a pittance, making it difficult for the family to exist. As a result, Samia’s mother couldn’t afford to pay for both of her daughters’ educations on her own, so she decided to put Samia’s education on hold. Samia does not want to leave school and is eager to finish her studies in any case. As a result, she requires assistance in order to finish her education and be a successful doctor.
Due to the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, Bangladesh is currently in strict lockdown. Everything is closed except emergency services. The daily laborers are suffering greatly as a result of this lockdown. Many of the parents of our foundation’s children earn money on a regular basis. They are unable to earn a living and feed their families as a result of the lockdowns. Their family is wracked with troubles. So, we decided to provide them some basic foods like rice, daal, and potatoes to help them get through the lockdown. We gave these foods to 20 families of our foundation. They are overjoyed. They claimed that these foods would help them throughout the lockdown. They are grateful to all of the supporters as well as the Alingan Foundation.
We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Tod and Mr. Kirkup for their love and support to the children and donation to the foundation. Their help and kindness mean a lot to us. Their contribution will make sure that the children receive an education. Millions of thanks to them for their great generosity! We greatly appreciate their donation and their sacrifice. Their support helps us to further our mission by helping children to receive an education. Their support is invaluable to us, Thank you again!
Bangladesh is currently in lockdown due to the increasing number of Covid-19 cases. Educational institutions, offices, transportations everything is closed. While it is for the public’s safety, it has a negative impact on those who make a living on a daily basis. Slum-dwellers, in particular. Owing to the lockdown, many parents of our foundation’s children have already lost their jobs and are unable to work. They are having a difficult time purchasing basic needs. They are struggling to raise a family. They are in desperate need of our love and help. Your small contribution can be a huge help to them.
Alingan Foundation arranged a drawing competition for the first time ever on 5th March 2021. Our children have many talents like dancing, singing, acting and also drawing. Alingan Foundation arranged a drawing competition so that they could display their talent. We were amazed to see how beautifully they can draw!
We started our competition at 4 PM. We gave them one and a half hours for the competition and also provided them all the necessary things to use. They were all so excited that they came beautifully dressed. They were all in a festive mood. They started to draw as soon as the time started. They were all very focused on doing their best. They were drawing different kinds of things such as Shahid Minar (a national monument established to commemorate those killed during the Bengali language movement in 1952), the National Martyrs Memorial, Scenes of Bangladesh, war scenes, etc. All the drawings were beautiful. We didn’t know that they had this beautiful talent. When the time was over, we collected their drawings. At the end of the competition, we distributed some healthy snacks like apples, cakes, etc.
The children were really very happy with the day. They all said that they are very thankful to the Alingan Foundation for arranging this competition and they would like to attend such competitions in the future also. We are also very pleased to have make them happy.
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.
