BGD/09/021 - Integration of street children through the provision of basic education and medical care

Country Bangladesh
Total project budget ($USD) $2,400
Requested funding ($USD) $6,300
01/06/2009
Project development type Education and Training
Name of Requesting Association Tokai Songho Association
Objective: Integration of street children through the provision of basic education and medical care.
Background: In the Dhaka city area, migrant and slum families tend to survive on unstable forms of under-employment, in overcrowded shanty dwelling and in extreme poverty. Among the urban poor, street children are the most vulnerable. They survive recycling rubbish, begging, peddling, washing busses or doing any sort of thing that would earn them some food. Children’s rights are at best ignored and at worst trampled upon through indifference, economic exploitation, and sexual and physical abuse. “Tokai” means “those who pick up rubbish”, and is one of the names used for street children in Bangladesh The Tokai Songho Association, made up of ex-Tokai, was created in 2006 with the assistance of an Italian volunteer who has been working in Dhaka for many years. The scope of Tokai Songho is to deal with the problems of the most vulnerable groups among the urban poor, namely street children, divorced or abandoned mothers and children dwelling in the slum along the railway in Kaworan Bazar. At present Tokai Shongo runs a Day Care Centre in Savar and a school in Kaworan Bazar. The Day Care Centre provides for about 40 children a safe space, health care, basic education and one proper meal a day. The school in Kaworan Bazar runs classes in the morning for about 80 children learning the basis of Bengali alphabet and numbers, and in the afternoon, tuition classes for boys and girls already attending primary school. At night both premises double up as fairly safe night shelters for street children. Various associations and individuals contribute to the running costs of the project, with a total annual budget of about USD 24,000. However, the landowner is not renewing the rent contract in Savar. To find new premises is becoming very difficult (even in the slums the rents are increasingly high) and Tokai Songho is planning to buy a plot of land. The 1% contribution, added to others, would allow them to save financial resources to buy a small plot of land and build their own place for the Day care Centre. This project was brought to the Fund by J.-P. Decraene, an FAO staff member and long-standing member of the Fund, after a six-week temporary assignment in Dhaka. He and a colleague from the FAO Representation in Bangladesh, Tommaso Alacevich, visited the project after meeting with the Italian volunteer, and were highly impressed with the work carried out in very difficult conditions. Both vouch entirely for the Tokai Songho Association, and will be able to ensure a continued follow-up on the spot, and reporting.
Use of Funds: To fund partly one year of the activities of the two centres, to cover: teaching materials and props, schools fees, books, clothing, medical expenditures.
Beneficiaries: 220
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