Alingan Foundation

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

Project’s account address:
Mechelsesteenweg 23/22
2018 AntwerpenBelgium (EU)

You can also make your donation online via paypal or credit card as mentioned in the link: http://alingan.org/donation.html

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.

Captain David Ring, and his friends came to the Alingan project for the second time on the 4th of June 2017. Despite their busy flying schedule, working for Emirates Airlines, our friends took time off from their busy routines and decided to drop by our foundation to spend the day in teaching and playing with the Children. David brought a lot of books and toys for the children, along with clothes for donation to the kids and their respective families.

It was Anna Marija’s first time in Bangladesh. She and her friend, Michelle were very excited to meet the children. They offered to read stories to the children despite the language barrier. Through sign language and sweet but troubled attempts at understanding each other’s languages, the children and the guests finally broke the ice and took off with a wonderful reading session. They were being read Jack the Rabbit and his adventures with his grandpa. Later they took pictures with the kids and introduced them to the popular social media app, “Snapchat”. The kids had an amazing time checking out the different options and features added to their faces on the photos. Lots of laughs and giggles all around the room! After a session of English reading, it was the children’s turn to test our guests’ Bengali! Anna and Michelle had an amazing time learning some new bangla words from the elementary bangla children’s books and played word games and animal sound games with the kids.

David, on the other hand, pulled out a “where’s Waldo?” book and challenged all the boys to spot Waldo in each of the pictures in the book. With a feeling of competition and an opportunity to impress David, the boys all jumped at once to the book to find Waldo on the page, and surely enough, they found him! The kids were very excited to meet our friends and were so happy with the new gifts that they brought with them. All of them had a new book in hand and were pressing the buttons, and turning the pages, their eyes glazing with happiness and curiosity.

After few hours of laughter and learning and kind donations, it was time for David and his friends to leave, as they prepare for their journey out of Bangladesh. The children bade them farewell; it is never enough for them to spend some quality time with these kind friends, their hearts asking for more time. With hearty goodbyes from the kids, David and his friends left, leaving behind the kids waiting to see them again in the future one day. It was a great opportunity for these children to have an experience of interacting with foreigners, for the first time for many of them. In a way, these friendly meetings are shaping the minds of the children and are preparing them for possible future communications.

The object of this project is to help 100 slum children in Bangladesh for their education. These are primarily orphans and children growing up in slums in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who are vulnerable and under-privileged and often in dire need of education, basic medical care, food and clothing. We can’t help everyone but everyone can help someone. If we can make this work, we will be nearer our aim that poverty will disappear from the world and everyone will live a standard life in equality.

Child labor in Bangladesh is huge and that comes from the need to survive with their families. Many children live with their families, either on the streets or in slum houses. Other children live on their own because they have been orphaned or abandoned by their parents. Children also run away from their families or carers, fleeing poverty and physical abuse, and end up living and working alone on the streets.

To break the ongoing cycle of poverty of the slum dwellers we have found that the only way that we can guarantee the children a better future, is through providing a solid education. We believe that through education, slum children can grow up with the knowledge and ability to break the cycle of poverty in their whole community. We expect to ensure a better education for them and provide all related support to allow them to go to school.

We are determined to cover 100 children under educational support and ensure the support continues until they complete their studies. After completing their studies, they will be capable of finding a better career and will be able to bring their whole family out of the slum where they can find the light of their life, live with dignity and with full protection of their basic human rights.

It was pretty challenging to establish the “Alingan Foundation” project and let it run to support the children for their education. We were not able to collect a sufficient fund to support our listed 100 children overall in the last year, but we tried our best to support some children based on their most essential needs. We are hoping to cover all the children under support until they finish their school till graduation so that they are able to find a good career and leave poverty forever.

A little contribution and support from you would help and encourage us to go ahead with the long-term prospect of breaking the cycle of poverty of slum dwellers through education.

For more information and to make your contribution, please visit the website: www.alingan.org

The Children have celebrated the first anniversary of Alingan Foundation on 2nd May 2017. This is the day we started our official journey to serve slum children in Korail, Dhaka in 2016.

It was very exciting and enjoyable day for us and the children. They were dressed wonderfully and colorfully. Few of them were costumed in Bengali traditional dress “Shari”. They arranged themselves very beautifully. They were so excited and happy to celebrate the first anniversary. Few of them came earlier to decorate the project room.

We started the program by singing our national anthem. And then some of the children performed dancing, singing, reciting poems, telling stories etc. Others were an enjoyable audience. As a gift for celebrating the first anniversary, we provided each child some school stationaries for their studies. And also provided them some snacks on the occasion as well. They enjoyed a lot the day and expressed to celebrate the anniversary every year.

It was pretty challenging to establish the project and let it run to support the children for their education. We were not able to collect a significant fund to support our listed 100 children overall in last 1 year. But yet, we tried our best to support some children based on their most essential needs. We are hoping to cover all the children under support until they finish their school till graduation so that they are able to find a good career and came out their poverty forever.

On the first anniversary, we thank to all supporters who supported us financially and morally to run the project. We were able to run the small sale twice in a week in Antwerp, Belgium for the support of people around who donated their unnecessary items for the sale. The little fund we collected from sale was a great help to run the project.

We also thank to all the visitors from all over the world who already visited the project and the children and provided them some necessary items. We encourage everybody to visit or volunteer the children through our project on the ground in Dhaka. This is the best way for the children to gain their knowledge and ability more and more to become a first-class citizen.

A little contribution and support from you would help and encourage us to go ahead another year on the prospect to break the cycle of poverty of the slum dwellers in Dhaka through education.

Tracey Humphreys from Australia and Theophilus from Singapore recently visited the project.

Tracey was visiting Bangladesh for a short period of time. Even in her busy schedule while in Bangladesh, she was interested in visiting the children of the Alingan Foundation. She spent a wonderful time with the children, teaching them origami. She was impressed with the project. She found Alingan to be a safe means of supporting and contributing to the children’s education. She let her family and friends know about the project via social media. She expressed an interest in visiting the children again on her next visit to Bangladesh.

Theophilus came to know the project and was interested in visiting it before leaving for Singapore. He is passionately interested in children’s welfare and especially for children who are underprivileged. His interest in children prompted him to visit the children of the Alingan Foundation. He provided some school stationary for them and spent a pleasant and fun time with them. He enjoyed seeing their smiling faces.

It was a great pleasure for the children to find Tracy and Theoplhilus with them. We hope to have regular visitors and volunteers who would benefit the children by expanding their knowledge and enabling them to become first class citizens.

It was a great pleasure to find our foreign visitors David Ring, captain of Emirates Airlines and Sharon with the children of the project. Captain David has supported children of different projects in Bangladesh now for many years by donating items, inviting people to visit and volunteering for the children. He has also personally sponsored a child in Dhaka for several years. His kind heart for under privileged children is highly appreciated.

They donated some clothes, stationery and other necessities to the children and also visited a few families of their families. The children were very excited to be with them. They had a pleasant time and they performed some recreational activities for them.

Visiting and volunteering for the children can be a great part of support in making a difference to the quality of children’s lives. The children would be blessed to find regular visitors and volunteers with them to let their knowledge and talent expand.

There are ways to help combat poverty other than by sponsorship or financial support. You can take part in our project by providing unwanted and unnecessary household items, clothing, educational materials etc to our following drop off points. We can pass on donations to the children and their families. Alternatively, when we collect sufficient amount of donated items, we can arrange for a garage sale or to sell the donated items in the flea market. In this way we may collect some funds to run the project.

You can also bring your donations with you on your visit to Bangladesh or Belgium and make contact with one of our staffs to arrange collection from your destination or you can drop your donationed items to one of our drop off points. You can also make your donation directly to the children and their families during your visit in Bangladesh. This applies equally to foreigners and to residents of Bangladesh.

An example of donated items:

– All type of clothes and shoes (both children’s and adult)
– School materials
– Books and paintings
– Kitchen utensils
– Electronic Equipment
– Toys
– Toiletries
– Bedroom items
– Dining items
– All types of glasses
– Show pieces
– Ornaments
– And so on

Note: please make sure that your donated items can be reused.

You are requested to drop your donated items to one of the following locations:

Drop off point in Belgium (with appointment):
Dambruggestraat 155
2060 Antwerpen
Note: Please let us know via phone call, sms or email before you drop the donations to the above address.
We are doing the garage sale on the above address every Wednesday and Friday from 11.00am till 6pm. You can also bring your donated items during the sale.

Drop off point in Belgium (without appointment):
Cafe Strange
Dambruggestraat 161
2060 Antwerpen
Delivery time: Everyday except monday from 6pm till 11pm.

Drop off point in Bangladesh:
Alingan Foundation
House no- 1, Unit- kha169
Korail Bosti (Beside the Nurani Mosque)
Banani, Dhaka-1213

Contacts:

Email: info@alingan.org
Cell: Jessie: 0473 97 32 37,
Palash: 0484 33 91 62 (between 10am and 10pm-Belgium time)
Armand: 0474 42 49 01 (between 2pm and 10pm-Belgium time)