{"id":814,"date":"2014-07-18T13:12:58","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T13:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangladesh-theproject.com\/?p=814"},"modified":"2014-07-19T04:49:24","modified_gmt":"2014-07-19T04:49:24","slug":"street-school-meet-the-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangladesh-theproject.com\/?p=814","title":{"rendered":"Street school: Meet the children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Street school: Meet the children
\nBy Sabya van Elswijk<\/a>,<\/p>\n

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After leaving the railroad tracks, we walk back to Raj, who is trying to turn the car in the heavy traffic.\u00a0Emran tells him the way, and we drive through the stream of Rickshaws, walking people, street\u00a0sellers, and cars to another street. There, Emran points to something colourful in the middle of the\u00a0street, between the traffic. I look closer and see that they are children sitting on mats on the street,\u00a0while the traffic passes by alongside. Three adults are walking and standing around them, and one\u00a0is sitting in between them, bend over schoolbooks. We walk over, and Nasir Udden Rubel is coming\u00a0to us to welcome us to their school, Prothom Surjo. He is the initiator of this project, started to offer\u00a0complementary education to the public school in the morning, and give these children who live on the\u00a0street a better education.<\/p>\n

The children are already looking at us, and they run forward in a group to meet us. The teachers are\u00a0telling them to watch the traffic while they cross: one of the biggest hazards for the children. Four girls\u00a0come to me and ask me: \u201cHello, what is your name?\u201d \u201cMy name is Sabya, and yours?\u201d \u201cMy name is\u00a0Kameela.\u201d And a big smile. Then the next and the next and the next come to say hello, and afterwards\u00a0Emran says there are 85 children in total. Martijn asks some children if they want to be on a photo.\u00a0Stopping the traffic in the street he portrays them. Emran asks them about their life, name and age.\u00a0Slowly the big group of children start s to become individuals who have their own name, face and story.<\/p>\n

Some small children are sleeping on the mats, others are writing in their books, and some are playing\u00a0with stones on the street. A girl named Shrini beckons me to come, and helped by her teacher, who\u00a0speaks English, she explains the stone game to me. She is very fast throwing and picking up stones from\u00a0the street. And they make me try, clapping loud when I succeed, and helping when I fail. After receiving\u00a0Iftar from us, the snacks they eat at night when it is Ramadan, they all walk off to \u2018home\u2019, to come back\u00a0the next day again.<\/p>\n