News
August Newsletter
Since lockdown was announced, our mothers have been busy hand-making Christmas decorations made out of bamboo strips, carved from the trees naturally grown in the heart of The Sreepur Village, the place they now call home and where they get to learn a number of new vocational skills that will empower their families with a future of hope and independence.
Action Against Domestic Violence
To help prevent domestic violence, we would like to share with you one of our mothers past experiences of this ever-growing mistreatment and abuse.
Nutrition and Hydration Week 2019
Following a recent storm in Bangladesh, many of the crops that were due to be harvested this month in The Sreepur Village have been destroyed. We are now looking to raise £5000 to cover the cost of these lost crops and appeal to you, during Nutrition Week, to help us raise the necessary funds so that we can not only grow more crops but help to grow minds too - feeding more families to a healthier future.
International Day of the Girl Child
As today marks International Day of the Girl Child, The Sreepur Village would like to share with you the stories of four girls who came to The Sreepur Village charity as vulnerable, insecure, abandoned and abused children, and how through playing cricket, their future dreams could be made a reality.
International Teachers Day
To mark International Teacher’s Day, we asked one of our teachers, Mohim, what it means to be a teacher in The Sreepur Village school.
International Day of Charity
Why pick The Sreepur Village as your chosen charity?
September 5 was International Day of Charity, and The Sreepur Village marked the day by asking one of its newest supporters why she supported The Sreepur Village. Sandra has, in the past, supported a number of charities like Breast Cancer, The Red Cross and Children in Need. She told us that, smaller charities like The Sreepur Village often get overseen. Sandra was particularly taken with a story she had read on Facebook which highlighted the importance of swimming lessons for children as the number of deaths from drowning in Bangladesh is staggering and she also told us that she was amazed that we were the only charity in Bangladesh to keep mothers with their children.
World Breast Feeding Week (Aug 1-7)
In 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) issued a new 10 point guidance to further raise awareness on the benefits of early breastfeeding. According to research, breastfeeding babies for the first two years would annually save the lives of more than 8,20,000 children under the age five.
Ramadan in The Sreepur Village 2018
The holy month of Ramadan started a week ago in Bangladesh which witnesses, for one month, devout Muslims observing, dawn-to-dusk, a fast for self-purification and divine blessings. The scenery of Ramadan in Sreepur Village is distinguished. The mothers and children are dedicated to their fasting and while the mothers training hour has changed a little due to prayer, everyone still attends all the regular activities.
Preparations Continue for Pohela Boishakh
Watch our video to see how The Sreepur Village prepares for Pohela Boishakh (Bengali New Year)
Candle Making by A Mother of The Sreepur Village
Earlier in 2017, The Sreepur Village began a ‘Candle Making’ training programme for the mothers, to help empower them as entrepreneurs. A small business idea, such as this, helps the mothers to support their families as they can make candles in their free time and earn an additional income, a driving force that never existed before.
Snack Time at Sreepur
As it is #NutritionMonth and #youcancareweek would you like to see what snacks The Sreepur Village provides the children during school times?
We offer snacks in school because they are a powerful tool in ensuring a child's good health and nutrition. Regular school snacks mean our children benefit from getting nutritious meals and staying in school without any physical hardship. When their stomachs are full, the children are more focused and tend to perform better. A child that takes a nutritionally adequate meal has been shown to fall sick less often and has improved school attendance. The children of The Sreepur Village are very much influenced by their classmates and always eat better in the circle of their friends.
Nutrition and Hydration Week
Living in a remote village in Bangladesh’s Sunamgaj District, Runu Bala struggled to feed her three children. Without land and living near to Tanguar Haor - a large wetland area in North-Eastern Bangladesh that gets flooded for five to six months of the year - it was hard for Runu to grow vegetables or other crops. Vegetables are an essential source of nutrition for a sound and healthy body, but in Bangladesh, two out of every three children born are underweight due to malnutrition.
In Bangladesh, many mothers, like Runu, don't have enough land to cultivate vegetables conventionally. Sack gardening does not require much space and a variety of vegetables can be grown according to need and taste. The bags are also easy to move, which is important for families living on 'char' lands (River Island) and riverbanks, who are often forced to move as their villages become flooded. The large majority of our mothers are from the Char area.
International Women's Day at The Sreepur Village
In celebration of International Women’s Day 2018, the mothers’ association of the Sreepur Village arranged a cultural programme and led a discussion which focussed on this year’s theme of #PressforProgress. It was an opportunity for the Sreepur mothers to celebrate womanhood in all its form and during the two-hour long discussion, the mothers primarily discussed the importance of self-reliance, training and development, they also thanked The Sreepur Village for supporting them and their children.
International Women's Day 2018 - Rays of Hope
Today is International Women's Day and The Sreepur Village would like to share with you a story of hope and empowerment:
After the death of her husband, Khadija and her three children were evicted from their home by her husband’s elder brother. Abandoned and alone the only option for Khadija and her children was to move to Dhaka.
It was whilst living in a park that Khadija’s children met an organisation that offered to refer them all to The Sreepur Village (Shishu Polli Plus), the only residential mother and child project in Bangladesh. Without The Sreepur Village Khadija would have had to place her children in institutional care and spend the rest of her life alone on the streets of Dhaka.
World Book Day
Today is World Book Day and The Sreepur Village would like to take this opportunity to share with you the story of Alo, a 45-year-old mother of four children and whose name means light.
Alo, real name Sobeda Begum, lost her husband 12 years ago just before the birth of her youngest son. Her husband was an agriculture labourer and the only earner of the family and one day he never returned home. Due to Alo’s early marriage she never had the opportunity to go to school.
Rare Disease Day
As today is Rare Disease Day we would like to share with you the story of Surzo (meaning sun in English), a boy whose left leg was infected by a rare bone infection called Osteomyelitis.
Surzo, whose real name is in fact Nahid, was only 12 years old when he fell from a high brick stake whilst playing with friends. After 3-4 days he got a very high fever and became unconscious. Immediately, Surzo was taken to The Sreepur Village Health Clinic but due to his high fever and unconsciousness and the concerns of The Sreepur Clinic, he was taken to a nearby NGO clinic named Public Health Centre (well known as Gonosyastho Kendra (GK). The GK clinic also failed to identify the reasons for Surzo's condition. After thorough consultation between The Sreepur Village and the GK Clinic staff, Surzo was immediately sent to a government hospital in Dhaka accompanied by one of The Sreepur Clinic’s trained nurses.
International Mother Language Day
At the crack of dawn, everyone walked bare foot to lay wreaths at the alter of the Shaheed Minar (a memorial monument) and paid their respects to the language martyrs of 1952.
Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week
As this week is Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week we wanted to share with you the story of one of our beneficiaries. By raising awareness, we hope that more people will be able to help put an end to such brutalities.
Presently, at The Sreepur Village, 60% of the mothers have faced some form of sexual abuse or violence in their lifetime. We would like to share with you the story of Sathi who is unmarried and an under-aged mother of The Sreepur Village
Story Telling Week and The Sreepur Village Library
To mark the end of Story Telling Week we are delighted to share with you some pictures of our new library, currently being updated.
Led by Matthew, our child development specialist, the school teachers have been busy working on modernising The Sreepur Village school library. Last year, we restructured our school and teaching system so that we could improve each-and-every child’s learning experience, and to keep in line with these plans, the library is now being reorganized, painted and most importantly filled with a selection of new book
Bicycle Workshop
In rural Bangladesh public transportation is a nightmare for women, especially for the poor and marginalised. If our mothers could learn vital skills in repairing bicycles such as how to fix a puncture, then this would help them in many ways. With such skills, the mothers could set up their own businesses, they could also save money by repairing their own bikes, and ultimately by learning to cycle this would not only give them freedom but would also be a life saver in the villages especially in the Char (River Island).
National Story Telling Week
As part of National Story Telling Week, Lubna (our child development specialist) shared the story of the ‘Tiger and King’ to a group of our children
Becky Horsbrugh -The First British Citizen to Cross the Bangla Channel
The Sreepur Village would like to send their heartiest congratulations to Becky Horsbrugh who yesterday crossed the 16-km Bangla Channel from Teknaf to Saint Martin’s Island in the Bay of Bengal. She is the first British citizen to have completed this challenge
