education

May 13, 2018

Crossing the border through a 10-year-old’s eyes

10-year-old Harisa describes how she and her family escaped from their home in Myanmar and crossed the border into Bangladesh. She is one of almost a million Rohingyas living in the makeshift settlements in Cox's Bazar- all of whom experienced similar trauma. 
March 22, 2018

Localisation of humanitarian response: A proven frontier for BRAC

Let us take the recent Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh- dubbed as the world’s fastest growing humanitarian crisis- as a case to see why and how BRAC can be a model for the localisation in humanitarian response.
March 6, 2018

Keeping the kids in school: 200 learning centres for Rohingya children

10-year-old Abdullah is writing numbers in his notebook, sitting on a bright blue and green mat with the sun pouring in through the thatched bamboo. He writes, without pause and in neat handwriting, from 1 to 20 in Burmese and English. Abdullah attends the temporary learning centre in B26/1 of Balukhali 1 in Cox’s Bazar along with his two brothers.
February 6, 2018

Switch off the TV, read a book – our future depends on it

What is one of the surest ways to damage our futures? Create a world without books. Stub out curiosity, imagination and dreaming, and block the exchange of ideas and knowledge.
December 18, 2017

The uncertain future of the Rohingya children

People stretched as far as I could see. Young, old and every age in between, all standing in lines for hours to receive food.  What most shocked me was the number of children. There were just so many of them. So many hungry eyes.
December 14, 2017

Improving lives: One BRAC at a time

This was originally posted on Bridge International Academies blog. BRAC’s annual event Frugal Innovation Forum in Dhaka, is now in its fifth year. The 2017 event explored education innovations and sought to connect innovators, social entrepreneurs and emerging leaders. Bridge was proud to play a part.
December 14, 2017

What is education really achieving? Here are 10 things to know.

What is education really achieving in reality? While designing education models centred around learning and knowledge, our vision and actions often get tunnelled.
December 7, 2017

Preparing for exams on a remote island

Standing on a distant piece of land in the middle of the haor (wetlands) of Sunamganj in northwestern Bangladesh, a sea surrounds the school. The water stretches as far as the eyes can see, with a few patches of croplands peeking through the horizon. It is the only school in an area of eight square kilometers.
December 6, 2017

Inside Cox’s Bazar’s settlements where childhood and laughter still exist

Almost each day these days, I wake up and make my way to the makeshift camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar, the site of the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis of recent times. Life in these settlements is brutal- I see the struggles of the women, men and children who have recently arrived, most exhausted and traumatised.
November 26, 2017

What do safe spaces in a humanitarian crisis look like?

Deep inside the chaotic makeshift settlements of Kutupalong, Cox’s Bazar, is a spacious, shaded, colourful place. A bamboo structure with handmade decorations hanging from the walls. Curious onlookers gather outside the thatched windows, attracted by the rhythm.
November 20, 2017

Learn to play: 3 playful innovations in education

The child with his nose in a book might not be the only one learning. This was one of the bold messages from the Frugal Innovation Forum 2017. The forum’s innovators and speakers called attention to children’s right to education and play.
November 14, 2017

Is IT innovation in education oversold?

Innovation and technology are seen as the solutions to the educational deprivation of millions of children in the developing world. How does the technology-based model of innovation relate to the real world of learners, teachers, schools, families and the communities that we live in?