8th December 2014

Opening preschool sponsored by Best Years Ltd

We are so delighted and so grateful to all the customers of our UK wholesalers, Best Years Ltd, for collecting lots of small amounts from the retailers they supply in the run up to Christmas.   All those small individual amounts have added up to enough to set up a new preschool alongside one of our centres in the Sundarbans and to run it for one year.    This will make a huge difference to all the children who will attend this preschool.

Image:  Gaynor from Best Years Ltd cutting the ribbon to open the new preschool

The facilities in the Sundarbans are incredibly basic and the poverty is very severe.   But with just GBP500, Hathay Bunano have been able to buy all the equipment and furniture, rent the space and pay the salary for a preschool teacher for one year.   A little bit of money goes a long long way in Bangladesh.

Image:  Opening the new preschool in the Sundarbans

Fifteen children are registered at the preschool and it will run every day in the mornings while the mummies are working in the production centre next door.   This will make a huge difference to these children who will learn both English and Bangla letters and will start to learn to read and write.   There are some primary schools in the area and Hathay Bunano will work with the local community once the children are 6 years old to try to get them into the local primary schools.   Their eduction in the preschool will help them enormously in this process.

Image:   Gaynor from Best Years Ltd handing over books for the school.

The money donated by Best Years Ltd and their customers is enough for all the books, pens, exercise books, posters, chairs and tables etc – everything that is needed to successfully run the school for one year, in addition to the teachers salary and the rent for the space.    Currently the rented space is very basic and this is because of the general poverty in the area.   Over time, as economic development occurs, with women earning money regularly, we will see improvements to the buildings in this area since this is generally one of the earliest priorities for women in rural Bangladesh to make their homes more safe, secure and comfortable.

After the first year, Hathay Bunano will continue to fund the preschool from within the profits it makes.   Hathay Bunano is a non-profit organisation and so all profit made in this organisation is ploughed back into these type of community projects.