Bangladesh programmes awarded grant by Big Lottery Fund

Children on the Edge is delighted to have been awarded funding by the Big Lottery Fund, to scale up our work with working children in Bangladesh.

Since 2009 we have been working with our partner MUKTI, in Bangladesh, providing a chance for working children in the Cox’s Bazar area to gain an education that would otherwise have been unobtainable.

Building on this work, the lottery grant will contribute to the costs of the programme for the next three years and enable us to increase the number of working children in our Community Schools to 900 per year.

The grant has also made it possible for us to recruit an additional 36 teachers making a total of 108 teachers across all the Community Schools, all benefitting from full teacher training in child friendly techniques, and the delivery of curriculums which have been specially developed for students who have encountered barriers to education.

The Big Lottery Fund is the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding and is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need.

Rachel Bentley, Director at Children on the Edge says “Our aim is to create an opportunity for children who have been denied all access to learning, to gain an education and have a chance each day to just be a child. This education is key to breaking cycles of poverty and discrimination and we’re delighted to have the backing of the Lottery in making this a reality for thousands of children”.

Over the next five years we will be focussing particularly on the introduction of child based student councils, training children as evaluators and encouraging them to take a lead in monitoring and planning. They will also be meeting with community leaders on an annual basis to voice their opinions.

Working children in the Community Schools will be working towards a three year goal of graduation into mainstream primary education. We will be resourcing staff to negotiate these places with local schools and to work alongside parents to raise awareness about the importance of education for their children.

Find out more about the Community Schools in Bangladesh.