Lemon Soda 2021

BACK TO SCHOOL
who started with the program ten
years ago are now attending university.
These original school drop-outs
strive to become a doctor, engineer,
minister or parliamentarian instead
of working in the household or
farming.
Back to School Project Bangladesh has a very good network
of primary and intermediate secondary schools, and
higher secondary colleges. Families can get education for
their kids at a very low or no cost. Yet there are families who
don’t see the opportunities education brings. They focus on
the short term gains and choose to let children work in the
household or farming. Even though this means they drop
out of school. That is why The Choice founded the Back to
School Project together with a manufacturer in 2007.
Change the future
Stimulating children’s potential
The manufacturer, who owns a local factory, The Back to School Project noticed these
recognized extreme poverty in Gonopaddi.
This village is located in Sherpur, an on drop-out students. The philosophy of
problems and created a program focused
agro-based and underdeveloped district the program is to transform each child into
198 kilometers from Dhaka at the norther its own change agent. It’s not limited to
border with India. Most of the kids in this region
are drop-out students and families do one’s potential. Good practices, helping
learning; it’s also focused on stimulating
not have enough to eat. The lack of education
leads to this poverty, because eventually of the project. The goal is to teach children
others, and living a healthy life, are all part
uneducated children become a liability for self-worth as well as value of education so
themselves and their village. They are not they can influence the economic scenario
able to support themselves in the long run. and engage in societal welfare. The Back
Help was needed in order to change the to School Project has kickstarted a huge
social and economic condition.
development; some of the grade 1 students
Success of the project
The first year of the Back to School
Project started with twenty students.
Initially, there were only
two teachers. The students were
split up into grade 1 and grade 2
classes. Since there were only a few
students per class to manage, the
lectures were very effective. Unlike
regular schools there were incentives
for attendance: free eggs and
biscuits, free soap and toothpaste to
stimulate health and hygiene, and
extra and co-curricular activities to
develop other social and cultural
skills. The first results were tremendous.
More and more students were
eager to join the school in the years
that followed. Today, there are more
than two hundred students, twenty
teachers, and computer training
programs for the basic courses. The
scope of the school has expanded to
grade 12. Students up to grade 4 are
scattered across ten satellite places
in the village getting lessons from
higher grade students. Students
from grade 5 attend the main
school building to follow lectures,
given by regular teachers.
Make your own change
Together with the manufacturer
The Choice helps these children to
make their own change. Nowadays
there are no real school drop-outs
in Gonopoddi. All children have
been included in the Back to School
Project. They have become their
own change agents with the ability
to transform the Sherpur-district for
a better future.
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