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Education for Development and Sustainability (EDS)
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Education for Development & Sustainability (EDS)

Everything is possible when we work from our heart and have faith in our dream!

Md Hafizur Rahman

Buttons: Learn more (link to What we do)          Support us (link to Support us)

EDS Bangladesh: Children are positive change agents for the society – YouTube

Our dream – why we founded EDS

I, Md Hafizur Rahman, or Haiska as the children call me, dropped out of school as a child in Bangladesh due to harassment, bullying and physical punishment at home and at school. I dreamed of a community where children feel safe, valued and heard. Are trusted and treated as resources who can create positive change in the community. A friendly learning environment, where children learn through play.

In 1988, still a child, I started to make my dream come true. I gathered children begging in the streets and working in factories in a football team. I made a friendly relation to them and invented stories where children were heroes so they felt that children are powerful and can change their own lives. I ignited their thirst for learning by making it fun and easy through songs, rhymes and relating the curriculum to their everyday lives. They realized they were able learners, went back to school and I tutored them daily in secret at our rooftop. My parents would punish me if they knew I read with poor children instead of studying for my own education. In 2005, I established the Education for Development and Sustainability (EDS) community of practice with Md Alamin and Trine Lund.

Challenges children in Bangladesh face

In Bangladesh, it’s a common conception that children need to be controlled by physical and humiliating punishment. Most adults do not trust children and youth and hence behave in authoritarian ways. Children and youth develop the feeling that they are valueless, become depressed and loose hope in their future. Many try to escape their unbearable situation by joining youth gangs, marry early or commit suicide. 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11

Girls face at high risk of child marriage. 51% (38 million) are married before the age of 18 and 13 million before the age of 15.2 94% of women in Bangladesh have experienced sexual harassment in public places, and many risk sex trafficing.15,16 Lack of safety prevents girls to get education, jobs and independence.

The education system is based on rote learning where children and youth are expected be obedient, quiet, and submissive, to continuously study and not play. This creates heavy mental stress.4,5,7,9 the education is based on theory with little relevance for their everyday lives and it does not encourage ethical and critical thinking, reflection about consequences of own actions nor development of empathy and responsibility.

Due to complex challenges in the educational system, lack of mentoring for critical and ethical thinking, pressure from family and school and challenging socio-economic conditions, 10 million children and youth are out of school in Bangladesh.1 3,45 million children, age 5-17, work (2,1 million female, 1,35 million male).Children and youth are recruited to youth gangs who commit crime and violence that has caused deaths, which creates instability in the society. 12,13,14

What we do in EDS

We volunteer to mentor vulnerable children and youth, especially girls, to become change agents, teachers and leaders who positively improve their own life, family and community. The EDS change agents are orphans, children and youth who have avoided child marriage, dropped out of school due to begging, child labor, domestic violence and/or youth gangs.

In EDS, children, youth and adults work together as equals in a psychologically safe environment. We listen, trust and treat each other as resources. We encourage the children and youth to identify challenges in their own life and community, invent and test solutions and learn from experience. “Failure” does not exist. It’s just an experience to learn from.

Through continuous and collaborative reflection on our own and shared actions and results, we develop empathy, critical thinking, creativity, curiosity to learn, a sense of value in ourselves and confidence that we can create a more humane world. We conduct collaborative action research with the professors Erling Krogh and Sigrid Gjøtterud from the Norwegian University of Life Science (NMBU), and publish (link Publications) our methods and results to contribute to the discussion on how to empower children and youth to become change agents for sustainable development (link ESD).

EDS is run by and for vulnerable children and youth through their democratically elected EDS Youth board. The EDS change agents volunteer up to eight hours a day six days a week to:

  • mentor vulnerable children and youth, especially girls, to become change agents, leaders, teachers and social entrepreneurs who work for sustainable development.
  • empower girls to stop child marriage, get higher education and jobs
  • empower former youth gang leaders and members who dropped out of school to go back to school, get higher education and be role models who encourage other vulnerable children and youth to stay in or go back to school
  • create safety for girls so they get higher education and take empowering roles in EDS
  • teach (link: Education and good learning environment) vulnerable children and youth grade 1-12.
  • Create a friendly learning environment where children and youth feel they are able learners who can transform their lives through education and encourage others to do the same.
  • Mentor children and youth to develop creative, ethical and critical thinking.
  • create engaging learning materials and use ICT, the EDS garden and fish farm as learning arenas for interdisciplinary education for sustainable development.
  • advocate for child and human rights, especially gender equality, safety, education, good health, play and free time, feel heard, seen and valued
  • arrange social activities, sports and picnics
  • be innovative, social entrepreneurs (link to: Empower entrepreneurs). They generate income for own and others’ education and livelihood.
  • encourage parents to create a friendly relation to their children and support them to get education and a positive self-image
  • engage in action learning and research to improve our common practice
  • create system change by inspiring leaders of Shishu Palli governmental orphanage and Yusuf governmental school to create psychologically safe learning environments, friendly leader/teacher-student relations and practical education relevant to the children’s reality. EDS change agents show how this can be done in practice by teaching and mentoring the children and youth in these institutions.

The EDS change agents live in challenging environments. They face threats and criticism as many in their families and community consider volunteerism as “waste of time”, believe that children can’t teach and tell their children they are not able learners and will not amount to anything in life.

Do you want to acknowledge the value of our change agents so they get more energy and maintain the hope that we together can create a more just, sustainable, and humane world? Join our activities below.
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