JAAGO Foundation

The JAAGO Foundation is a civil society organization established in April 2007 and based in Bangladesh.^[1] JAAGO operates with the help of its employees and volunteer platform 'Volunteer for Bangladesh' to work towards the betterment of people living below the poverty line.

The JAAGO Foundation currently has 8 schools spread all over Bangladesh catering free of cost to the education needs of 1600 underprivileged children.^[2]

One of JAAGO's major annual events is the 'Universal Children's Day'.^[3] The foundation has more than 10,000^[4] volunteers via its volunteer platform 'Volunteer for Bangladesh' who celebrate this day by raising awareness for children's rights.

History

In April 2007, Korvi Rakshand, a law school graduate, started a charity program with some friends to distribute relief to the flood victims in the slums of Rayer Bazaar in Dhaka city. Later he expanded this program to establish the JAAGO Foundation with hopes of ‘breaking the cycle of poverty through education’. Although JAAGO originally started out by providing free of cost primary school education to the children of Rayer Bazaar, it slowly started to expand its activities for women empowerment and health awareness for the impoverished people of Bangladesh.^[5]

Activities

JAAGO Foundation School

The JAAGO Foundation School is the main and the most important project of the JAAGO Foundation. The institution which started in 2007 with 17 children^[6] on a piece of carpet, and a white board. It has now expanded to 13 fully functional branches, and over 1800 students. The JAAGO School is the first of its kind to provide free of cost education of international standards to the destitute children of Bangladesh. ^[7] The students of each school are from the local community and are chosen on basis of merit and discipline as well as the requirement that they live below the poverty line. The primary course of instruction is English although students are also taught to have a very strong background in Bengali.

Extra-curricular activities such as art, dance, drama debate, sports, singing, photography etc. are also given special priority.^[8]The children are also taught about their responsibilities towards their families, neighbors and their nation. They are given counseling so that they are able to share their family woes and the other issues they face while growing up. Apart from that, they are also provided with special classes consisting of personal hygiene and manner.

The JAAGO Foundation School utilizes a sponsorship project based on a 1:1 service ratio, where every specific sponsor, who supports a child by paying BDT 2,000 or USD 28 or GBP 18 every month. This money contributes to providing the child with a number of material and immaterial benefits. The children are provided with school uniforms, shoes, books and stationary. They are also given access to receive the benefits of various other projects. These projects help strengthen the child physically and mentally, by providing them with nutritious food, free medical care and hygiene products.^[9]

In September of 2011, JAAGO Foundation began its first online school as a pilot program. The online school was planned with the hopes that if it succeeded, JAAGO Foundation would be able to establish online schools in remote areas where qualities educators have no access. Out of the 8 existing schools 5 are 'Online Schools'.^[10]

First Aid Center

Helping the veteran doctor, JAAGO ensures regular health check-up and free medication of each child enrolled to . The First Aid Center also provides a health card every month to the families of the students who can avail the services as many times as they like and buy their medicine at a much lower rate^[11] than the prevailing market price.

Healthy Living

Many of the JAAGO students are malnourished and are unable to concentrate properly in their studies. JAAGO’s healthy Living project provides these children with nutritious food such as milk, egg, bread and butter and to care for their health. JAAGO also gives food to these student’s families. By receiving food on a regular basis, families have both short and long-term incentives to send their children to school instead of sending them to work in the streets.^[12]

Call for Hygiene

Most of the JAAGO students and their families are devoid of the basic knowledge or necessities of hygiene. JAAGO therefore initiated the Call for Hygiene Project which aims at providing hygiene products such as shampoo, soap, detergent, toothbrush and toothpaste on a monthly basis free of cost. Every year, JAAGO holds hygiene sessions where instructors teach the children how to brush their teeth, wash their hair, and other hygiene-related asks.^[13]

Women Empowerment

The JAAGO foundation collaborates with Bachhara, an Australian designer label, to use the principles of ethical trade and develop solutions for women empowerment. Designs from Bachhara are sent to the JAAGO Foundation Sewing Centre, which are then transformed into high-end clothing by the employees of the sewing centre. The employees are mostly women from the Rayer Bazaar slum who are paid wages higher than the average workers in Bangladesh and are also able to work in the safe environment of the JAAGO Foundation Sewing Centre.^[14]

Other Concerns

Volunteer For Bangladesh

Through Volunteer for Bangladesh, JAAGO Foundation for the first time in Bangladesh, gave the youth a voice and a platform. This concern of the JAAGO Foundation is a nation-wide association of Volunteer Action Groups that work for the betterment of their individual communities and the nation as a whole. Volunteer for Bangladesh plans to establish Volunteer Action Groups in all of the 64 districts of Bangladesh and is supported by the US Embassy, Dhaka.^[15]

International Operations

JAAGO has now opened supporting branches^[16] in Australia, UK, US, Oman, Qatar, Malaysia and Canada. Most of these branches are operated by native nationals who once worked as volunteers for JAAGO.

Patrons

In the past year, JAAGO Foundation has developed relationships with several leading organizations, namely the US State Department^[17] and British Council.^[18] JAAGO Foundation has been supported by the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Partner, UNDP, UN Habitat, Global Fund for Children, World Bank Group and the Bangladeshi private sector.^{[19][20][21][22][23][24]} JAAGO Foundation is currently holding talks with several local and international organizations to further enhance its programming efforts.

Board

• Korvi Rakshand, Founder and Chairperson

• Iffat Mahmud, Vice Chairperson

• Zihad-uz Zaman, General Secretary

• Tanvir Quader, Treasurer

• Wamiq Umaira, Member

• Sajid Chowdhury, Member

• Sharmeen Ahmed, Member

Awards

• Arthakantha Business Award (2010) - Best CSR Performance Award

• Mosaic Talent Award 2010 - Mosaic International Award

• - Commonwealth Youth Awards 2013 ^[25]

See also

• Street Children in Bangladesh

References

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External links

− Official website

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