Introduction to the Aparajita Literacy Program

AUW is an institution which aims to educate women to be leaders. From this perspective, how can it leave the cleaning staff of AUW that works to keep the campus clean and peaceful? 

In fall 2013, an initiative was taken by AUW to teach the cleaning staff that did never have seen the light of education. To make this noble goal turning true, we six students did a survey to know how many people are interested in this project to learn reading and writing Bengali.
With a great response from them, on 8^th November 2013, we started our first class with the hope to enlighten their lives by the light of education. People who did not have any education at all, we included them in “Basic group”. And who were at least acquainted with the alphabets, we included them in “Advanced group”. This project is revealing the meaning of written words which were once a mystery to them. The guidance of our faculty advisers is a great support and inspiration for our project. 

Initiators behind this noble goal:

Dr. Fahima Aziz,
Honourable V.C of Asian University for Women.

Dr. Christian Girard,

Faculty

Sharmistha Ghosh,
Faculty

Fahria Kabir

Faculty


Students working on this project:

Nur-E-Jannat
Bibi Joynab
Marina Afrin
Mousumi Alam Mili
Sadia Islam
Sharmin Akter Shitol
Nurjahan Hira

Welcome Party

The story starts by the Welcome Party held in the orientation class for the Literacy Project.

The speeches by the young teachers "Nur, Mili, Marina, Sadia, Shitol and Joynab" led the students to be inspired for entering the world of knowledge.

Introduction with the students seemed awesome when the students spoke very frankly.

Knowing the expectations of the students from this projects made the teachers "Hopeful" to work for them.

"I must learn to read and write because now I know how much I need the literacy", said Laky Akter, a student of the Literacy Project from the cleaning stuff.

The video screening from Meena Cartoon made them some more inspired to be literate.

The snacks were even more tasty when we ate them together having done the first class of the Literacy Project.

Literacy Project AUW launches today.
We are grateful to our honorable V.C. Dr. Fahima Aziz for her consideration to us initiating the project.
Special thanks go to Ms. Sharmishta, Ms. Fahria, and Prof. Christian who has helped us to lead.

Here are the extremely cooperative students to work with, who are: Nur E Jannat, Marina Afrin, Sadia Islam, Mousumi Alam Mili, Sharmin Shitol and Bibi Joynab. 

Aparajita's Journey

Bengali Literacy Project, a program within AUW, which aim to spread light of education in every remote corner of this institute. We six of the Prothom Alo scholars were given that responsibility by our faculty advisors Professor Christian Girard, Sharmistha Ghosh, Fahria Kabir to connect the cleaner apus with the word literacy who never splashes with the light of enlighten heart. In the meantime, we got response of some of the faculties who came forward to help us financially to raise fund for the project. At first it seemed very difficult to figure out who will be able to turn their life a little better because cleaners apus were always having problem of not getting enough time besides their work and some people were also not very interested. To get rid of all the confusions we ran a survey. We interviewed all the cleaners, security guards, and dining stuff in order to know their position of interest and opportunities besides their duty to join in our project as a student. We relived with their great response after analyzing the data we collected. We decided to start class of Bengali Literacy Project as soon as possible but it was not very easy task to started class at once without any preparation. We decided to hold four classes in a week so that our students can attend at least one class besides their job. From the collected data we analyze their level of knowledge and divided them into two groups, basic and advance. In basic group, we put cleaner apus who had never went through a educational process in their life. In advance group, we put people who have least sense of alphabets and who dropped out after grade five or six. We prepare a whole syllabus for both groups and also set a goal for their education so that we can guide them in a certain direction. We also made their attendance sheet and first class. Even we prepare how we will introduce ourselves to them. It was a very exciting experience for all of us and more interestingly it was the first teaching experience for some of us. We discovered many more way to impress our adult students including offering snacks, playing different games, and sharing memory in the first class.
With a great of hope and responsibility of instructor we start the first class of Bengali literacy project on 8th November 2013. It was an introductory class where we introduced each other and become friend with our students. We heard their story in life for not being educated and their passion for being educated. We also described our passion and goal for them through this project. We talked about the importance of education in life to inspire them more on the way. We let them know about their groups. We also played Pillow passing game, watch video. We ended our class with having snacks and great pleasure.