“VOF Week 2: Small is Huge”

As a developing country there are many problems with education, poverty, and standards of life in Bangladesh. Even though, this country is enriched with the natural beauty and resources, inadequacies of proper knowledge bring the country’s development very slow.
I believe that if I start doing anything small it would make a big change. In my educational life I have a really very small experience which I want to share. I am a non-professional teacher who teaches the under privileged children of the street of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Therefore, as a student I have decided to spread my knowledge to others, especially who are far away from education. Even though the plan to teach the street children is not very fancy but it is literary true that they are the one who need to develop soon no matter for the country’s economy or for the social development. They are living from hand to mouth by begging money from the people on the street. They need to get education to develop their quality of life standard. That made me thinks that, if I give them one taka (Bangladeshi money) each day, they still would be poor. There will be no change with that little help. Eventually I had determined to really help them by not giving money but doing something else like teaching.
The students I am teaching are not well-mannered. I collected them from the street and they were so happy when I told them to study. They do not have the opportunities to educate themselves. As a result, they are being involved to increase the illiteracy rate of Bangladesh. However, their family situation does not support them to study. Therefore, it is better for them to earn money instead of education. I thought that, I might not be able to teach them an academic lesson but they will learn the basic knowledge by playing games or making fun. I am teaching them not to make them doctors or engineers or teachers because it is not possible to escalate from their lower level to higher level. In that connection, I teach them manner- how to talk to people nicely and hygiene- how to take care of themselves. For example, I train them to raise their hand to answer any questions in class so that they can understand how to behave in class. And it is very hard to make them concentrate to follow the instructions. Moreover, I teach them hygiene like cutting their nails in every week; wash their hands before eating anything and etc.
It was a challenge for me to take the responsibility of those children in Bangladeshi conservative society. My friends were cooperative and it would not be possible for me to do it alone. It is not a very great contribution to eliminate poverty from my country but this slow teaching process will have immense impact on those children’s next generation. So I have hope to see their progress someday.