Viewed through the lens of the education Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Bangladesh is doing very well compared with some other countries. As government literature is quick to point out, Bangladesh is on track in promoting gender equality and empowering women, the third MDG. As it stands there are now equal ratios of girls to boys in primary and secondary education, and this will hopefully produce a newer generation of better-educated women. The 2007 opening of the Asian University for Women in Chittagong is also a hopeful sign.

~story by Mikey Leung~

The Dhaka Project is one of those special projects that inspires hope, creates real change and works with some of the most disadvantaged children Bangladesh has to offer.

When Emirates flight attendant Maria Conceicao visited a slum near Zia International Airport, she decided she would change the future of the children she found there. Three years after the founding of the project, there are now two schools, a preschool, a nursery, a clinic, dentist, computer lab, science lab, and over 700 disadvantaged children getting an English medium education and two square meals a day.

Of course, none of these initiatives is possible without money, awareness and the helpful hand of so many people. Maria has worked tirelessly to raise the funds necessary to support her initiatives, and has been joined by volunteers from around the world to help her raise the funds and profile of the organisation. The project’s baseline funding is currently supplied by the Emirates Airline Foundation, although there is currently a new appeal out there for more funds for anybody who cares to support such initiatives.

Work like this is inspiring—the faces of so many children for whom this school represents the only chance to change their lives leaves a mark on your soul that you cannot forget.

For more information, please browse The Dhaka Project’s website, or have a look at volunteer Richard Fleming’s introduction via Youtube: