Grameen Education

5th Grade girls crowded on the floor with their books
while other children try to listen at the door. 

      Today I visited a Grameen Shikkha (Education) school in the slums of Dhaka. The school was one small room with a mat on the floor. 19 students crowded in every day from 2:00-5:00 for a few hours of instruction in Bengali, English, Math, Science and Religion. This primary education is free to these students who can’t afford to attend a formal school and Grameen is committed to paying the costs of attending a formal high school for those who pass the post 6th year exams. The children that attend this school spend the first several hours of everyday working in order to help support their families. 

Two young boys hand beading a sari. 

We visited one 10 year old boy in his home after school let out and he showed us the sari loom that he used to do the hand beading on saris. It took him about a week to hand bead one sari working around 8 hours a day and he usually made around 900 ($12) taka for each one. Although this doesn’t sound like a lot of money, this small amount makes a huge difference in a poor family’s income and these children have no choice but to keep working in order to make sure the family eats. 

My friend Brandy caught a shot of the secret handshake!

  Surprisingly, the children at this school were some of the happiest children I have met so far.


They were all extremely excited about our visit and took turns performing songs and dances that they had practiced with their friends. When it was time to leave all of the children from the neighborhood ran out of their houses and followed us to the van. The children surrounded me and everyone wanted to do the secret Bengali handshake!