December 2005
Dear friend,
I am Moni and I am 15 years old. I live with my parents in the Jhautala slum area in the Chittagong district. This is in the southern part of Bangladesh. I have been asked by Bonny from ActionAid (she has helped me with the translation etc) to tell you my story of how your support of The Next Step has given me the chance to get a library in our school.
My father is a day labourer and he works in a little iron factory. But as he is not literate and works in a very low position, he earns very little, only 70 to 80 taka a day [68p]. He is the only one who earns money for our family but his work is not permanent. Sometimes he has to look for other work and doesn't get any money at all. My mother stays at home to look after the family and care for us all.
But even though we are very poor, my parents sent me to school because they wanted me to learn to read and write. They are illiterate but wanted better for me. They said they had learnt the importance of education from the meetings that ActionAid and their partner organisation BITA have held in our area. They have gone to these meetings for the last four years.
When I was in primary school the government gave us free books so I did not have to buy any for my classes. I was so proud when I finished primary school and excited about starting secondary school at the age of 13. But the problem was that in secondary school books are not free and my parents could not afford to buy them for me. I had only just started at secondary school, but already I was worried that I would have to drop out. I tried to carry on with my studies and borrowed books from other students when I could. Many of my classmates who were poor like me were forced to leave school because they did not have money for books.
Around this time, my friend told me about a club for young people run by BITA. There were many other young people at the club and they would do plays about problems in our area like health and education. These plays helped us and other people understand what our problems are. They also helped us get together to try to solve the problems. I really liked the idea and joined the group.
Last year we formed three drama groups with other children from slum areas in the city. We did plays about all the problems we face. One was about how we cannot go to school, as we can't afford books.
ActionAid helped us to invite the Government Education Officer to our play and we were delighted when he came. Our play showed that if our school had a library from which we could borrow all the books we need for free, we could carry on with our studies. The Education Officer really liked our play and told us he would try his best to help us.
The students and their parents were very excited by what the Education Officer had said. ActionAid helped us to contact the local government to ask for the money we needed to build a library and get books for our school. Some of my friends and I went to visit the Education Officer. We explained how we could continue our studies if we had a library.
Imagine how happy we were when two months later the government gave us the money to build a library. With the help of ActionAid, the community built a big new room in our school for the library. I am so happy that I can now borrow books for free. I am also excited because lots of my friends, who had to leave school, as they did not have the money for books, are now able to come back.
I really enjoy doing the plays because I feel that I am doing something to help poor students. The drama club has helped me and other boys and girls like me to understand that we have the right to an education. I want every poor boy and girl to be able to study in school. When I finish my studies I hope to become a doctor so that I can help people in my community.
I have been told that ActionAid has also helped many other schools to get library facilities from the government. Also ActionAid staff have said that it is thanks to people like you, who support The Next Step, that this has been possible. All the people in our school send you our thanks for your help.
Thank you Moni
Ps. I have put inside a picture of some children who benefit from using the library
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