wfn.org | Determined to Be a Teacher, Rabeya Vows to Resist Early Marriage

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Efforts by a Bangladeshi NGO to Empower the Poor

KURIGRAM, Bangladesh/GENEVA, 2 October 2002 (LWI) -
Eleven-year-old Mosammat Rabeya's morning routine is typical for
many girls in her age group. She usually gets up around 5.00 a.
m., helps her mother with household chores, then attends Quran
classes for about one hour under the instruction of the local
religious teacher. Breakfast thereafter consists of
boiled rice, left over from dinner the previous evening.

But her parents are determined that their daughter does not end up
like most local girls. The youngest out of three siblings, Rabeya
is in class five at the Bhagabatipur Children's Education Center
(CEC) in Jhunkerchar, Kurigram district, some 400 kilometers north
of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. Her village, situated in a
so-called "char", (isolated island) of the Bhramaputra river, can
only be reached by boat. Char villagers live along the river banks
like nomads. Continuously challenged by the river water levels,
they move to an embankment and settle there for a while until it
is time to shift their homes again.

The Bhagabatipur CEC is among 70 such centers with about 2,430
pupils, through which a local non-governmental organization, the
Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), continues to provide
education to the poor. Set up by the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) in 1971, the RDRS was registered as a national NGO in 1997.
"If there was no RDRS education center in my area, it would be
impossible for me to study at any other school," Rabeya says.

Though the family is poor and sometimes Rabeya goes without food,
her parents encourage her to continue studying. "My father and
mother encourage me to study hard so that my future could be
brighter. Being in class five I have to increase my study time so
that I can do better in the class. I am determined to study up to
a Masters degree." There is no clock in their house, but Rabeya
guesses that she studies an average of three hours daily at home.

When the center was started four years ago, it had 30 students
including 16 girls. Six of the girls have since dropped out of
school, and two are married. According to Rabeya's class teacher,
when girls appear physically mature, some of the guardians forbid
them to go to school outside the home. In most families, young
girls are mainly responsible for household chores, schooling is
not a first priority, the teacher noted.

Bangladesh, with a population of 135 million ranks fairly low on
the United Nations Development Program, UNDP, 2001 Human
Development Index - 132-162 countries. Poverty is a major
impediment to development. Around 36 percent of the population
lives below the poverty line. Illiteracy is still one of the
greatest obstacles to progress in the country. The adult literacy
rate is 41 percent, with a primary school enrollment of 75 percent
and 22 percent for secondary school. The drop-out rate is known to
be very high among the poorest families. There are also major
disparities, with the male literacy rate at 55 percent, almost
double that of females' at 27 percent. Despite the government's
efforts to extend schooling, the involvement of NGOs remains
essential in remote rural areas.

Rabeya's family has not been spared the impact of poverty. Her
elder brother, now a rickshaw (cart) puller in the capital Dhaka,
could not study due to financial difficulties. Her elder sister,
now married, did not go to school. Their parents are casual
laborers, hardest hit by labor shortage in the months of March and
September. Rabeya ponders whether she would not have suffered
similar fate as her sister had there not been RDRS-sponsored
education centers in their area. Upon graduation from the char
school, she plans to join a mainland college in Kurigram, but only
if she could stay with an aunt who lives there.

Rabeya has acquired further knowledge at Bhagabatipur. She now
understands that early marriage ruins her chances for a better

life. "My teacher explains to me that it is not good to marry
before I reach 18 years. I will protest against an early marriage
proposal at any cost," she says, adding that she is prepared to
sacrifice a lot to reach her education goal.

Rabeya wants "to be teacher. I would like to serve my people if I
get chance." She is aware that it will be a hard struggle in the
future especially after completing schooling in the RDRS center.
There are no further assurances for financial support.

According to Mr. Kamaluddin Akbar, Executive Director of RDRS
Bangladesh, the CECs are specially set up for the poor children in
the chars. The centers were started under a five-year plan,
enabling a group of children to complete their grade I to V
education. The land on which the schools are built is donated by
the locals while the RDRS provides learning materials.

"To enable the poor children of the chars to reach the country's
mainstream educational system is one of the main objective of
these centers," Akbar says. "The char people have been witnessing
that their children do study. Now the children can read, write and
they are able understand what is said from radios," he adds.

More than 88 percent of Bangladesh's population is Muslim, 10.5
percent Hindus, while Christians represent 0.4 percent.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of
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