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Giving Education to Tea Farmers' Children in Bangladesh

Giving Education to Tea Farmers' Children in Bangladesh

Tea workers are one of South Asia’s most deprived communities in terms of fair wages, access to education, healthcare, nutrition, and other basic human needs. At first glance, the lush greenery of the tea plantations of Bangladesh seems beautiful. “This is God’s country,” you might think if you ever visit there. But life in these tea plantations has a dark underside, and a closer look reveals deep suffering. Tea laborers work long hours plucking, carrying, and weighing tea leaves. They earn only $1.00 USD per day.
When they go home at night, it’s to residences called “labor lines” have only one or two rooms, no running water, and limited access to clean water and sanitation. Disease runs rampant. Most tea laborers are illiterate. They’ve never had access to quality education—tea plantations don’t provide good schools because students might get big ideas, and dream of a better life, and leave the tea garden.

Project Updates

Project Updates

The Project has Positively Impacted on 250 Students

January 2024

The project has positively impacted on the lives of 250 students in different villages and 13 teachers in tea garden providing stipends for education-related expenses. This support has empowered underprivileged and marginalized students to break the vicious cycle of discrimination and exploitation prevailing in the tea garden.

By distributing stipends and covering various educational expenses (books, monthly fees, clothing, stationery, and entrance costs) the project has undoubtedly contributed to academic success/formal elementary education. The academic results at the end of the year 2023 certainly bring about a positive trend among the supported students.

The project not only provides education, but also positively impacting social cohesion due to supporting both Hindu and Christian students. Moreover, this initiative fosters dialogue and understanding which promotes interfaith harmony and peace.

Arko Xavier Dio

9 Years old

Arko Xavier Dio

Arko Xavier Dio is 9 years old and grownup in a poor family in a Teliapara village, situated in the Tea Estate.

He has one brother and one sister and his sister studies in class ten. He losts his father when he was only 4 years old. His father was the only earning member in his family, and his mother got sick after her husband passed away.

His elder sister was taking care of her and him as well.

The little boy Arko Dio is a talented student and he dreams to be a good teacher, but financial hardship was a big obstacle in fulfilling his dream.

In this critical situation, the CatholicWorld Mission is subsidizing his studies so that he can continue his studies to fulfill his dream in future.

Philomina Minj

11 Years old

Philomina Minj

Philomina Minj, a 11 years old girl from Lubachora Tea Garden in Sreemongol Parish, looks like any other teenager from the community.

Unlike many other girls in Tea Garden, however, she was able to refuse her parents’ desire for her to work in tea garden.

Her father is a worker of a tea garden and is the only earning member of the fam-ily of five members. Early on poverty stalled Philomina Minj’s education. “I used to love going to school and enjoyed it. It was like a dream. Poverty, however, brought me back to reality.”

As a poverty stricken family Philomina’s parents decided to mini-mize the burden of the family by sending her to work as labourer.

But she was not prepared to do so. Now with help of Catholic World Mission she able is to continue her studies and working hard to full fil her dream of going to school for education.

Bonnya and Jahir are Now in 5th Grade

2019

Today, Bonnya and Jahir are in the 5th Grade. Thanks to your support over the last two years, they are still in school and receiving a high-quality Catholic education.

Bonnya still dreams of one day working as a police officer,  and bringing safety to her community. Jahir’s dream of becoming a doctor is also alive and well.

Thanks to your support, Bonnya, Jahir, and 150 other children are two years closer to making their dreams come true.

Bonnya

7 Years old

Bonnya

Bonnya, 7, is the youngest child in her family. Her mom and dad are both tea laborers. In the community where she lives, people have been working in the tea gardens for 170 years, generation to generation.

Bonnya dreams of escaping the poverty of the tea plantations and when she grows up, she wants to serve her country by working as a police officer to help make Bangladesh a better, safer place.

Jahir

8 Years old

Jahir

Jahir, 8, is also the youngest child in his family. Seven family members live together in Jahir’s tiny labor line hut: Jahir, one brother, one sister, two parents, and two grandparents. While both of his parents are illiterate, Jahir’s dad, Maramali, works as a tea laborer and his mom is a homemaker.

Jahir wants to be a doctor when he grows up.

Agnes

8 Years old

Agnes

8-year-old Agnes is in 2nd grade today, thanks to your support. Her dad is a tea laborer, and his $1 daily wage is all the family of four has to survive on. She dreams of being a doctor, and it’s only through your generosity that this dream may one day come true! Her parents never got to go to school, so they can’t read or write, and their only hope for their daughter to have a better life is the school you’re helping to support.

Shipa

12 Years old

Shipa

Shipa is 12 and dreams of being an engineer one day. Both of her parents work in the same tea farm, earning just $1 per day. On Sundays, the only day he has off from the tea farm, Shipa’s dad sells firewood at the local market to make extra money for the family to live on. Shipa has 5 siblings, so the extra income is necessary. Thanks to you, Shipa gets to go to school, and her dream of one day being an engineer is closer every day.

Swadhin

12 Years old

Swadhin

Swadhin, 12, is a first-generation learner. He and his brother are the first two in his family to ever get to go to school! Swadhin dreams of becoming a doctor one day because he knows he can help the sick. In his short life, he’s seen so much illness. His family lives in a mud hut with a tin roof, with no running water or plumbing. His parents, both tea laborers, can’t afford nutritious food or clean water, so Swadhin, his brother, and his parents are often sick. Swadhin has big dreams for himself, and so does his mom: “I want to see my son become a doctor, but more than anything, I want to see him grow to be a good human being, happy, and well salaried, so that he doesn’t lack anything when he grows up.”