The Ghoramara Asrayan Prokalpa (Ghoramara shelter project) involves a landless community given land and housing by the Government of Bangladesh in 2002 under a scheme for people affected by riverbank erosion and climate change.  ICA Bangladesh, which runs an integrated village development program called the Ghoramara Human Development Program (GHDP), initiated the “Education for the underprivileged children”  campaign here in 2004.

The community is located in Tarchandi Village, Chandpur District. It has a total of 230 families comprising more than 1,500 people. There are more than 600 children, of whom half are of school-going age.

However, Ghoramara does not have a school. The nearest school, a government institution, is far away and not accessible to its children for various socioeconomic reasons, among them poverty and ignorance of the parents.

The community is aware of the need for education. Its significance is also reflected in the national education and development policy which regards children as the future of family and the nation. Without education, they will be a burden to society and vulnerable to many social ills like child labor, drug abuse, street children, AIDS and prostitution.

Besides land and housing, the government has also given Ghoramara land for a school but has no plan to establish a school. ICA Bangladesh felt that without school facilities, the ultimate fruits of the shelter project would not be realized. It brought a smile to the faces of people in Ghoramara when it managed to construct a school building in 2010-2011. It was a huge struggle to get the government permission when selecting the site and getting the design approved.

Despite all the hurdles, ICA Bangladesh is proud to have finally built the school with support from home and abroad. It hopes the project will contribute to the achievement of children rights, constitutional fundamental rights, Millennium Development Goals and goals of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and other national policies that speak of primary education.

The new Ghoramara ICA Primary School, which will ultimately have an impact on poverty alleviation, human resource development and quality of life, delivers the following:

• Provides teaching and learning materials
• Organizes extra-curricular activities
• Provides life skills and leadership training
• Raises awareness about citizenship, love and respect and other issues
• Provides a multipurpose centre for learning, recreation and social gatherings.

We had expected the community to start running this project on its own this year but were told at recent community meetings that we will still need to support the project’s operational costs. This project has not been transformed into a community-driven sustainable project yet despite our facilitative and values-oriented trainings and plans. We understand the underlying issue that make communities like this dependent on external support. The community parents are poor people who often note that non-formal and primary schools in the country are fully free. There was a recent community initiative to raise funds from the students by imposing a fee. That led to some of the students dropping out and our staff members are worried about bigger impacts. Given the overall scenario, ICA Bangladesh will need foreign and local support for sustaining the project until the community takes over.