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.
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.
