In addition to supporting local community projects, all Rotary Clubs attempt to support one or more International projects. Dryden’s club has three major International endeavours: improving schools in Guatemala- the Ripple Effect program, ShelterBox-housing during disaster relief and literacy in Bangladesh.
Tanyss Munro founder and CEO of the Amarok Society lead literacy project in Bangladesh, spoke to us on the school we sponsor in the city of Cox’s Bazar, a coastal city in the S.E. corner of that country.
The Amarok Society brings a revolutionary solution to the chronic humanitarian problem of illiteracy among the working poor who live in slums. Amarok schools are not ordinary schools as we know them. They are rented dwellings in selected slums.
Their schools are different from other schools in other ways. Although their Mothers of Intention programme is for the purpose of bringing education to children too poor for school, Amarok schools are not for children; they are for mothers who then, every day, teach neighbourhood children what they have learned.
In other words, Amarok’s model is to teach Mothers to teach children. Amorak has 23 schools; most are in Bangladesh; however, they now have a presence in Pakistan. Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world and the most polluted. It also has the highest percentage of girls under 15 who are married.
At one point, Tanyss told a story about how 12 year old Liza taught her siblings, and other relatives to read. One of the techniques used in the Amorak schools with the mothers is to do dramas about social issues of interest to the Mothers. The result is that the Mothers then go out and share those issues within their community. Drama provides a non-confrontational way to deal with issues such skills get used when they expand into the community. The result is that where Amarok schools thrive child marriages decrease. Another social change taking place is after an Amorak education occurs in a greater acceptance by men of women and girls receiving an education.
Amarok school have even had Mothers and some children go on to high school, university where one has even become a doctor.
Munroe concluded by thanking the Club for their support with a special thank-you to the members of the International Services committee.
