22.9.2015

OK, I’ll try…

Mymi’s Story

Mymi is a placid, very friendly 11-year-old girl with a constant smile on her face. As any little girl, she too likes to jump rope, play hide-and-seek and spend a lot of time with her friends. Mymi comes from the Tripura tribe whose members live in a mountainous region in south-east Bangladesh. She attends the 5th class of the AHTSS Boarding School there. She wants to be a nurse when she grows up. When Mymi was about transfer from a village school to the AHTSS, her family was experiencing difficulties that are a sad Bangladesh evergreen. Yet together we were able to help her.

In the hilly cross-border regions of south-east Bangladesh there live poor, energetic and hard-working people who come from various tribes with names that you may found a bit exotic. Say, have you ever heard of such tribes as Chakma, Tripura, Marma, Bawn, Mro, Taichonga or Khyang? If you’re not a BanglaKids donor or an ethnographer specialized in south-east Asia, you probably haven’t. The tribe members resemble the inhabitants of Mongolian grasslands. Every tribe has its own language so their children learn Bengali and English as their second and third language.

Family Background
The name of the Tripura tribe serves its members as a surname: Mymi’s father’s name is Chanti Das Tripura (52 years old) and her mother’s is Momota Tripura (38). Mymi has two brothers: the older one is 14 and the younger one’s only 3 years old. They all live amongst palms and gum trees in a house made of mud, wood and metal sheets.

Mymi’s family is very poor. They don’t own land or domestic animals. Father works as a day laborer with no steady income. He seeks work in the neighboring villages but isn’t successful every time – he then leaves for the mountains to pick firewood and sells it at the local market. Mymi’s mother, a housewife, sometimes helps their neighbors with the housework in exchange for a little money. Her income is very low and irregular. Mymi’s parents don’t earn enough to provide for a family with three children.

When Mymi and her brother Birbikram attended the village school of Jumtoli, they were having lunch there every day. That was very helpful to their parents. After finishing the 4th grade, Mymi was about to transfer to the boarding school – but her family couldn’t afford it.

Difficulties with Transfer to Boarding School
By the end of 2014, right before the final exams, our coordinator Gilbert paid a visit to Jumtoli. He was there to find out if the children were interested in studying at a boarding school. Many of them said they were but in the end it was only Mymi whose parents sent an application for her, hoping that where there’s a will, there’s a way.

This is what Gilbert says about his encounter with Mymi’s parents: ‘I asked them to pay a part of the entrance fee but they couldn’t afford it. So I told them to take some time to think about it. Some time later I happened to be at the near village school of Chelachora to give the children presents from our donors. I went to see Mymi’s parents again and asked them to make a final decision. And suddenly her father hugged me a said: “Brother, help my little Mymi start the boarding school and keep on studying.” It was so intense that I couldn’t told him more than “OK, I’ll try”.’

Solution
Shortly after that Gilbert learned that a donor from the Czech Republic bought Mymi a gift package. He then suggested to Šárka, the coordinator of the BanglaKids program, to use the money for Mymi’s transfer to the boarding school. ‘Šárka agreed and I could tell Mymi’s father the wonderful news,’ says Gilbert happily. He arranged everything with the school administration and bought Mymi all the necessary school supplies.

Mymi Today
Mymi is now a proper student of the AHTSS Boarding School. All her primary needs are satisfied. She likes to study and wants to come top of the class. Her favorite subject is Bengali and she has some of her friends from the village at school with her.

It was her father’s intervention, Gilbert’s help, Šárka’s coordinating and primarily the kindliness of the Czech donor – for which we’re all grateful – that helped to transfer Mymi to the boarding school. For kids like Mymi, help from the ADRA donors is priceless.

In Bangladesh, there live many poor families that cannot afford to provide education for their children. Help and give these children a better future.

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‘Transfer to Boarding School’ Package

The package is intended to help children who finished their studies at a village school and are about to start the boarding school. The children and their parents will gladly accept material support, e.g. clothes, sheets, plates, water containers or metal boxes for personal belongings. Donate and help children with their transfer to a boarding school.


More information about program Support BanglaKids

BanglaKids is a development program of ADRA Czech Republic.
Since 1999 we have provided education to 6,500 children in Bangladesh.
Together, we’re giving them an opportunity for a better future.

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