By Nathan Thanki (Northern Ireland)

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”

Recently at Pearson, and indeed the world, the focus has been on the economic crisis and its effect on the world we live in. There’s been a lot of talk about how badly we are all going to suffer as a result, especially Pearson College and its $3 million deficit which worsens due to the economic crisis. Without wishing to detract at all from our school’s plight for financial assistance, I want to say that we are by no means the people who will bear the brunt of this crisis. Pearson has been in debt since year one, and the Director has the unenviable and increasingly difficult task of raising 2 million dollars each year, but somehow we have thus far managed to stay afloat, and I believe that we can continue to stay above water, if we try.

One country that may not have the luxury of remaining above water, literally, is Bangladesh. One of the world’s poorest countries, Bangladesh appears to be a country that fate chose to attack. Prone to floods, droughts, earthquakes, hurricanes and with a population of 152 million in an area of 144,000 square kilometres (roughly 1/6 the size of BC), the country has a multitude of problems.

Such a high population density leads to a scramble for resources, and as the case is the world over, the distribution of limited resources is not equal. The result is that huge swathes of people live in extreme poverty. Having been in the country for 5 weeks this summer, I can say that this poverty is indeed extreme, seemingly insurmountable and all encompassing. Families live in dirt by the roadside, people tapping every car window for food or small change, naked children playing in human and animal excrement, other children selling popcorn in the middle of a highway, and a bus overflowing with people narrowly avoiding a polio victim. It requires a heart of stone to ignore, something which I was unable to do. This was not my first time in a developing country, having lived in Sudan, but the experience was no less shocking. I am not the first to be disturbed by Bangladesh’s extreme poverty.

Maria Conceicao, a Portuguese woman working with Emirates Airlines, was so moved when she witnessed these conditions that she founded The Dhaka Project (TDP), a humanitarian effort aimed at sustainably developing a slum area of Dhaka called Guwair. The main aim of TDP is ‘to bring new sources of income to some of Bangladesh’s poorest people’. Training is given to the adult members of families in the hope that it allows them to overcome poverty and become self-sufficient. The education provided to several hundred children who would otherwise have none is intended to give them more opportunities in life. Local resources are used wherever possible, but international volunteers of any kind are welcomed. This is the capacity in which I entered the project this summer.

To begin with I was quite sceptical as to what use I could possibly have – there are people in every country in the world better equipped to do what I was doing – teaching English, math, IT and football – to dozens of children aged 5-13. To come from overseas with the intention of helping people in their own country you have to be able to justify your presence there and what you are doing, and I was not. However, I eventually realised that it was not so much the skills I might possess be able to pass onto the children that was valuable. It was simply my time, energy and most of all interest. The fact that somebody had the time to give to these children meant more than a bag of t-shirts donated from Dubai. Not that donations are not well received or appreciated, they are. But it means more, it is so much more personal, human, to have a donation of attention and affection. It sends out the message that you are not alone. The teachers at the school were all well intentioned, but sometime hasty in their desire for getting the children the best possible education. Providing other perspectives to them was something I found to be more powerful than trying to change how they did things.

A multitude of perspectives is also one of Pearson’s greatest assets, and something which any one of us should be able to draw upon and use. So while we face a formidable task of keeping Pearson afloat, we also have an opportunity to help those who are sinking faster than us. Even if we can’t contribute great amounts of money to the multitudes of worthy initiatives and programmes which help people all over the world, we can at least do something. The IB is a very useful educational tool which we often take for granted, but it does equip us with some level of skill which can be passed on for free, skills which may help them and let them help those around them.

I believe, and so did the founder of the UWC movement, Kurt Hahn, that we can make a difference in the lives of others, in various ways. One of those ways is to go to www.thedhakaproject.org and read more about it for yourself. It is easy to donate financially or with clothes, books, toys etc. As I found out, they are also extremely open to any volunteers, regardless of age and ability. As long as you can get there with your own money, perhaps on a year out, TDP can provide a roof over your head and food for a minimal fee, which goes into their project. Even if you aren’t able to donate or to go, you know people who can. A friend, a relative, a pupil, a teacher may be able to go there and pass on their skills or merely give some attention to those who are otherwise ignored by the world. In a time of great difficulty, we don’t have to become selfish and only help ourselves; we can also help the world. For me, this desire for change is the driving force or the UWC movement

Thank you for reading.
If you would like to know anything that I could help you with please contact me at nathanthanki@hotmail.co.uk