More than 12000 kilometers away from Toronto, Canada, a retired teacher of a prestigious institution in Bangladesh, Nurul Hoque, started a few small projects in greater Dhaka, the capital, after retirement using his own land, meagre savings and a braid of dreams centered around a noble idea - to serve the kids from dirt poor families living in the slums and villages devoid of proper sewerage, nutrition, clothing and education. Through his tiny organization CCP Foundation, he along with a few friends and helping hands worked tirelessly for several years under strained conditions to start three elementary schools in three different areas under structures built with bamboo poles and tin roofs. A quick glimpse of the schools:
Barar char school: total students 87 with 50 girls and 37 boys, 8 teachers.
Dokkhin khan school: total students 97 with 52 girls and 45 boys, 5 teachers.
Uttora school: total students 11 with 1 teacher.
Most of these kids come from families that can barely provide enough food to survive, let alone proper nutrition and varieties. In 2017, Nurul secured some finance to start another of his long-time wish – to provide healthy snacks to the students. He is providing milk, fruits and singara – a local delight to only one of his schools due to funding limitation.
Future plans:
Haluaghat after hour school – Expected to start in 2018, already have commitment from 41 students, 25 girls and 16 boys.
Snacks project: Offering snacks to all the schools.
The farm: Nurul Hoque has a small farm where he is planning to raise several cows to produce milk, goats for meat and poultry for eggs and meat to earn money to partially support the schools and the snacks project.
Libraries: A library for every school, be it small.
Nurul’s CCP Foundation is involved in many other things, small but helpful, like planting trees, distributing seeds among poor farmers, distributing winter clothes, extending helping hands to disaster areas in whatever way it can.
Be part of the dream:
Nurul Hoque persistently looks for people with similar dreams. He is eager to extend his arms to anybody with the right attitude. Many of his friends, students, acquaintances are part of the braid of dreams.
Funding: In private projects like this the primary challenge comes from insufficient funding. His needs are not very high, but it is continuously growing and often without a fixed source, hard to fulfill.
Even after spending 100% of the money raised on actual projects plus his own money from pension and selling whatever little land is still remaining, the gap is increasingly becoming bigger.
Nurul Hoque is not giving up anytime soon. He believes in his will and honesty and the cumulative strength of people around him.
Interested in making a contribution?
Go Fund Me page:
https://www.gofundme.com/CCPFoundation
Connect with Ex-Principal Nurul Hoque.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ccp.foundation2009/