THE MIAMI HERALD ran this story on January 2, 2010 after Dave Lawrence went to Bangladesh to visit BRAC and Grameen. Read this firsthand account by someone who is an expert in early childhood development and think about what we should be supporting in Pakistan, Afghanistan and other struggling nations.
David Lawrence is president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation in Miami, and "university scholar for early childhood development and readiness'' at the University of Florida.
Real reasons for hope in struggling nation
BY DAVID LAWRENCE JR.
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- This is one way to tell this nation's story: Half of all children live in abject poverty. Three-quarters of a million children toil at hard, exploitative labor. Corruption is among the world's worst (though decreasing).
Citizens face the semi-constant threat of monsoons and other environmental disasters -- indeed, Bangladesh has experienced more deaths by natural disasters this past decade than any other country. (An average of 8,241 Bangladeshis die annually because of monsoons and other horrors. Compare that to the once-in-a-generation Hurricane Katrina of 2005 in which 1,836 died.)
Global warming easily could lead to rising sea levels that would make significant portions of this country uninhabitable.
While the infant mortality rate has been cut in half, it is still five times the rate of Florida's.
All that is true. So, too, is this: There is real reason to hope. That story can best be told through the women and the children.
Standout organizations
In part, this is a story of the difference made by nongovernmental organizations. Two NGOs in particular, both formed in the 1970s, stand out: Grameen Bank, founded by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize three years ago, and BRAC, founded by the equally impressive Fazle Hasan Abed. Between their two organizations and a concept called microcredit, literally millions of people have been lifted from poverty that is far deeper than we see anywhere in these United States.
The women first. Abed and Yunus figured out something important about women:
• One, loan them money, and they will pay it back (much more faithfully than many men).
• Two, when women make a profit their first thought won't be to spend it on themselves (as men so often do).
Over the decades, with no collateral required but an insistence on a reasonable plan and individual commitment, Grameen and BRAC have loaned what we would see as tiny amounts of money to buy, for example, a cow or a sewing machine or to set up a cellphone business.
The women of a village group gather weekly to repay their loans.
Believing in people
The simple principle here: Trust the people, believe in them and what they can and will do, and they will live up to their end of the bargain. Grameen and BRAC turn their share of the earnings into more loans for more people. And a nation -- of 85,000 villages and an agriculture-dependent economy -- is lifted.
It is a remarkable story.
Now, the children. The literacy rate in this country is 60 percent. It was 35 percent a quarter-century ago. There has been much progress. There is a great distance to go.
Give some of that credit to the government. Give some to BRAC and Grameen.
Grameen runs one-room ``pre-primary'' schools for 16,000 5 year olds. BRAC has ``child development centers'' for 17,000 4 year olds, 25,000 pre-primary schools for about 700,000 students and almost 40,000 primary schools (grades 1-6) with more than 1.1 million students.
Schools are located in villages and city slums near where the children live; if they weren't, many parents wouldn't send their children. School is six days a week, and 253 days a year (compared to our 180).
These children don't have the school buildings we have, or air conditioning or computers. (Often school is a corrugated tin shed with no glass in the windows.) Class sizes are larger than ours, but full of well-mannered children who are expected to behave -- and do. That is reinforced with a monthly parents meeting.
Learning two languages
One day we are in a rural pre-primary school in a village an hour and a half south of the capital. The children's sandals and flip-flops are gathered in a circle outside the classroom. Within, 33 bare-footed children sit around a circle on the carpet.
This year they have been learning the 51 letters of the Bangla language alphabet and the 26 letters of the English language alphabet. They are learning shapes and colors and numbers. They sing a song about brushing their teeth, and have other lessons in hygiene. They learn about the country's history, culture and wildlife. Each day begins with the national anthem, My Golden Bangla.
Teachers, who work from a research-based curriculum, know as well as our teachers do that children need to develop socially and emotionally as well as physically and cognitively.
They also know, as the curriculum guide says, that they need ``to inspire them to dream for a better life.'' I ask the children what dreams they have, and they go around the room: ``Pilot. Nurse. Policeman. Teacher. Doctor. Military man.'' And so forth.
Another day we are in a school located in a Dhaka slum, the stench of open sewers permeating the air. Fifteen children, ages 9 to 14, are learning Banga, English, social sciences.
The children sing the American civil rights anthem, We Shall Overcome. In English. I am overcome.
Things about this country that make me think about where we live:
• Population: Bangladesh, with 160 million people (making it the seventh-largest country in the world), is smaller in land area than the state of Florida with 18 million people.
• Traffic: The next time you're upset by all the traffic in South Florida, think about the capital city Dhaka, with at least seven million people. It's the fastest growing urban area on the planet. The darnedest conglomeration of beat-up motor-driven vehicles and pedal-propelled rickshaws speed along, and in and out, taking seemingly no notice of any lane markers.
• The homeless: Miami-Dade has an estimated 4,000 men, women, children homeless, three-quarters of whom are in shelters. In the streets of polluted, slum-ridden Dhaka there are an estimated 250,000 homeless children (some living on the streets with parents, many by themselves).
• Tolerance: This country -- almost 90 percent Islamic, almost 10 percent Hindu -- has a long tradition of people getting along. Bangladesh, born in 1971 of a bloody liberation from Pakistan (which itself was carved from India), has figured out a way to emphasize what people have in common.
Click here to see the full article in The Miami Herald.
David Lawrence is president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation in Miami, and "university scholar for early childhood development and readiness'' at the University of Florida.
Real reasons for hope in struggling nation
BY DAVID LAWRENCE JR.
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- This is one way to tell this nation's story: Half of all children live in abject poverty. Three-quarters of a million children toil at hard, exploitative labor. Corruption is among the world's worst (though decreasing).
Citizens face the semi-constant threat of monsoons and other environmental disasters -- indeed, Bangladesh has experienced more deaths by natural disasters this past decade than any other country. (An average of 8,241 Bangladeshis die annually because of monsoons and other horrors. Compare that to the once-in-a-generation Hurricane Katrina of 2005 in which 1,836 died.)
Global warming easily could lead to rising sea levels that would make significant portions of this country uninhabitable.
While the infant mortality rate has been cut in half, it is still five times the rate of Florida's.
All that is true. So, too, is this: There is real reason to hope. That story can best be told through the women and the children.
Standout organizations
In part, this is a story of the difference made by nongovernmental organizations. Two NGOs in particular, both formed in the 1970s, stand out: Grameen Bank, founded by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize three years ago, and BRAC, founded by the equally impressive Fazle Hasan Abed. Between their two organizations and a concept called microcredit, literally millions of people have been lifted from poverty that is far deeper than we see anywhere in these United States.
The women first. Abed and Yunus figured out something important about women:
• One, loan them money, and they will pay it back (much more faithfully than many men).
• Two, when women make a profit their first thought won't be to spend it on themselves (as men so often do).
Over the decades, with no collateral required but an insistence on a reasonable plan and individual commitment, Grameen and BRAC have loaned what we would see as tiny amounts of money to buy, for example, a cow or a sewing machine or to set up a cellphone business.
The women of a village group gather weekly to repay their loans.
Believing in people
The simple principle here: Trust the people, believe in them and what they can and will do, and they will live up to their end of the bargain. Grameen and BRAC turn their share of the earnings into more loans for more people. And a nation -- of 85,000 villages and an agriculture-dependent economy -- is lifted.
It is a remarkable story.
Now, the children. The literacy rate in this country is 60 percent. It was 35 percent a quarter-century ago. There has been much progress. There is a great distance to go.
Give some of that credit to the government. Give some to BRAC and Grameen.
Grameen runs one-room ``pre-primary'' schools for 16,000 5 year olds. BRAC has ``child development centers'' for 17,000 4 year olds, 25,000 pre-primary schools for about 700,000 students and almost 40,000 primary schools (grades 1-6) with more than 1.1 million students.
Schools are located in villages and city slums near where the children live; if they weren't, many parents wouldn't send their children. School is six days a week, and 253 days a year (compared to our 180).
These children don't have the school buildings we have, or air conditioning or computers. (Often school is a corrugated tin shed with no glass in the windows.) Class sizes are larger than ours, but full of well-mannered children who are expected to behave -- and do. That is reinforced with a monthly parents meeting.
Learning two languages
One day we are in a rural pre-primary school in a village an hour and a half south of the capital. The children's sandals and flip-flops are gathered in a circle outside the classroom. Within, 33 bare-footed children sit around a circle on the carpet.
This year they have been learning the 51 letters of the Bangla language alphabet and the 26 letters of the English language alphabet. They are learning shapes and colors and numbers. They sing a song about brushing their teeth, and have other lessons in hygiene. They learn about the country's history, culture and wildlife. Each day begins with the national anthem, My Golden Bangla.
Teachers, who work from a research-based curriculum, know as well as our teachers do that children need to develop socially and emotionally as well as physically and cognitively.
They also know, as the curriculum guide says, that they need ``to inspire them to dream for a better life.'' I ask the children what dreams they have, and they go around the room: ``Pilot. Nurse. Policeman. Teacher. Doctor. Military man.'' And so forth.
Another day we are in a school located in a Dhaka slum, the stench of open sewers permeating the air. Fifteen children, ages 9 to 14, are learning Banga, English, social sciences.
The children sing the American civil rights anthem, We Shall Overcome. In English. I am overcome.
Things about this country that make me think about where we live:
• Population: Bangladesh, with 160 million people (making it the seventh-largest country in the world), is smaller in land area than the state of Florida with 18 million people.
• Traffic: The next time you're upset by all the traffic in South Florida, think about the capital city Dhaka, with at least seven million people. It's the fastest growing urban area on the planet. The darnedest conglomeration of beat-up motor-driven vehicles and pedal-propelled rickshaws speed along, and in and out, taking seemingly no notice of any lane markers.
• The homeless: Miami-Dade has an estimated 4,000 men, women, children homeless, three-quarters of whom are in shelters. In the streets of polluted, slum-ridden Dhaka there are an estimated 250,000 homeless children (some living on the streets with parents, many by themselves).
• Tolerance: This country -- almost 90 percent Islamic, almost 10 percent Hindu -- has a long tradition of people getting along. Bangladesh, born in 1971 of a bloody liberation from Pakistan (which itself was carved from India), has figured out a way to emphasize what people have in common.
Click here to see the full article in The Miami Herald.
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