Editor’s Note: G.E.M. Munro and his son Gabriel have, for the past two weeks, been speaking to Rotary Clubs in Saskatchewan and Alberta about their Mothers of Intention Literacy Program in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The following is a firsthand account by a Canadian volunteer who recently spent seven weeks working with the Amarok Society in that country.
By Jill Varley
Someone once told me that, now and then, it’s important to climb right out to the skinny branches of life. I took this advice to heart this year and came to Bangladesh for a seven week volunteer experience with Amarok Society schools.
Nothing in my past had really prepared me for this journey. My heart was pounding on the cold Montreal winter day when I made my way to the airport. My only plan was to keep my heart and my mind open, and to contribute in any way I could.
Then again, can you prepare for a city like Dhaka? The city is a five-alarm fire for all the senses. As I perch precariously on the colourful but flimsy rickshaw behind the tiny rickshaw wallah, he drives right out into on-coming lanes of thundering buses, armoured SUVs and over-loaded trucks. To defend us, he holds up a thin brown hand and rings a small bell. I am sharply aware, for perhaps the first time, of the frailty of human life. Including mine!
Turning into the narrow alleyways of the slums, the rickshaw begins to expand in the narrow roadways lined with tiny shops selling vegetables or sacks of rice or hand-made luggage or plastic buckets.
No longer a delicate matchbox behind a bicycle, it has grown into a chariot with a most outlandish
creature on display. Every man, woman and child forgets the initial reason for being in the street, and turns to stare in shock at the unfathomable spectacle approaching.
The same questions are clearly etched on each face: what on earth can that be? Is she lost? Can she really be so tall? In my mind’s eye, I replay the moment of first contact from every science fiction movie
I’ve seen. My spaceship has indeed landed me in this slum in Dhaka; don’t worry, I am friendly! And so, it turns out, are they.
Tanyss, and her daughter Grace remove their sandals and lead the way into the crowded, square little school room where the student mothers and their youngest children squeeze together on the mat covered floor.
As I settle onto the low stool at the front of the classroom besideTanyss and Grace, I look back at the dark, intelligent eyes before me. They emerge from flowing colourful clothes that swirl around shoulders and over heads. I am struck by the beauty of these women with their long silky hair arranged so carefully. Later, it is their perseverance and good humour that win me over completely.
When we walk to visit the houses of a few mothers after class, we are chaperoned by a parade of children marching alongside us, vying to hold Grace’s hand. I abandon my sandals and stoop again to
enter a small, dimly lit room. The large bed with a heavy wooden frame overwhelms the small space
I sit on the bed and listen to the warm but impenetrable sounds of Bengali as the mother exchanges with her teacher. I ponder the fact that this family of five lives together in this tiny room. The two gas
burners outside the door are shared among several mothers who must cooperate so that each can prepare her family’s meals.
Part of me still wants to look away from the gulf of poverty that we allow to exist between people in various corners of the world.
Later, I try to express my discomfort when I talk about this with my fellow Canadians. Young Grace gently nudges me away from any angst-ridden inertia. “I don’t worry much about how things
make me feel. I just focus on what we can do.” Point taken!
The mothers in these neighbourhood slums have now been given half a chance to receive the education they were denied as children. And they are rising to seize this opportunity with one hand, while the other pulls a few children right along with them.
My volunteer experience with Amarok Society has given me an alternative to feeling hopeless in the face of the poverty of Bangladesh and the world. I have seen that through Amarok Society, Canadians are making a direct, cost-effective and life-changing difference. I think that Grace is right. Through simple acts of generosity, we can help these mothers create new worlds of possibility for themselves and their children.
Jill Varley who spent 7 weeks in Bangladesh working hard for Amarok Society
April 17, 2011
Created as a joint program of the Rotary Club of Dryden and the Dryden District of the Retired Teachers of Ontario “An Evening to Support Literacy in Bangladesh” was a fitting way to end Literacy month.
Fifty six adults and four children attended the event. In addition another $725.00 was contributed by those who wanted to support the project but were unable to attend, an amount equivalent to another 29 attendees.
G.E.M. Munro combined storytelling with a short video clips to illustrate the work being done by the Amarok Society that they founded.
Their “Mothers of Intention” is a program where the Society trains teachers to work in the slums of Dhaka and Khulan, Bangladesh to teach illiterate women who in turn must then go out and teach 5 children. “Schools” are the same one room shanties lived in by those in the particular slum.
Over the past 5 years, G.E.M. estimated that at least 600 mothers…and thousands of children had been exposed to some form of literacy.
The Amarok Society currently operates twelve one room “schools”. Between 20 and 25 Mothers often with children on their lap sit on dirt floors for instruction. The Amarok Society supplies the teacher, rents the school, and supplies the paper and pencils. The children are educated in the mother’s home. This way for about $9,500.00 a year 25 mothers and often more than 200 children become literate.
Door prize winners wereJulie Dzeoba a Riverview basket of Northwestern Ontario delicacies; Mark Tinkess and Peter Keen both won a Boffo Bog with a bottle of wine and a pair of Dryden Entertainment Series tickets while Mark Whittaker to home a $50.00 gift certification from the host caterer, the Masala Restaurant.
READ A GREAT BOOK
G.E.M. Munro’s book “South Asian Adventures with the Active Poor” a best-selling collection of true short stories about these extraordinary mothers and families was available in the lobby where 16 copies were purchased at $20.00 a piece. Because 100% of profits go to Amarok Society, buying a book directly helps a child to get an education.
For more information on the work that they are doing in Bangladesh, go the their website at
http://www.amaroksociety.org/
Certainly by the end of the evening the Amarok Society’s motto “Teach a Mother – Change the World” was well understood by everyone in attendance.
On March 30, 2011 the Retired Teachers of Dryden (District 35 of RTO/ERO) is co-sponsoring with the Rotary Club of Dryden, a dinner at The Centre to raise funds for a literacy project by the Canadian charity The Amarok Society’s Mothers of Intention Literacy Project.
District 35 Retired Teachers of Ontario – Dryden has entered into an agreement with Rotary to co-sponsor this dinner because we have made support for the Mothers of Intention Literacy Project the focus of our 2011 Project Service to Others (PSO) submission.
Besides supporting local community causes, each Rotary club has a responsibility to support International programs as well. When we learned that about 25% of the PSO projects funded support education and children in developing countries we felt this project stood a good chance of approval and that working with Rotary was a good fit.
Bangladesh, is a country about the size of Southern Ontario and has a population of 140,000,000. The country has over 9000 slums, with a population of 5,400,000. Almost all of them are in cities. Dhaka the capital has a population of 18,000,000; that is equivalent to seven cities the size of Toronto.
Families who live in slums are illiterate and the children do not go to school because they are simply too poor. Tanyss and Gem Munro, the founders of the Amarok Society and creators of the Mothers of Intention Literacy project have found away to bring education to slums in Dhaka and Khulan by educating mothers who must in turn educate 5 children.
For more information contact: Suzanne Borst 807 938 6903 or email sborst@drytel.net
Letter of invitation to attend the dinner
Two sided 3” by 8” summary/reminder card.
Registration form to attend the dinner and/or make a contribution
By clicking on more you can read these documents before you download them (more…)
Posted by district35
Categories: news
Books
South Asian Adventures with the Active Poor
G.E.M. Munro
Tangent Books
2010
pp. 241
$20.00
LINK TO ORDER
Wilf Wilkinson, Past President, Rotary International has said of South Asian Adventures of the Active Poor:
“I found this book amazing and couldn’t put it down. I salute the author and his family for their dedication and service to these poor children and their mothers.
Enlisting and training uneducated mothers and making them the vehicle to teach others is almost unbelievable. However, it is happening, and that is what makes the story about this project so fascinating.”
In 2004-05 G.E.M. Munro, his wife and family of 4 children travelled to Bangladesh …. (more…)
September 23, 2010 (Retired Teachers of Ontario, Dryden, Ontario, Canada)
SCPN secretary Heather Compardo has written to our President and asked RTO-35 to help get the word out on this chance to win $100.000.00 to build a desperately needed animal shelter.
District 35 President Judith Hamilton said, “We consistently switch from first to second place and then back to first again, so new and committed voters would be greatly appreciated.”
Between now and October 31 you can vote Everyday!
Everyday!
Everyday!
Everyday!
Caryn Swark is a Grade 3 teacher at St. Patrick’s Fine Arts School in Lethbridge Alberta.
Her personal website can be found at http://carynswark.wordpress.com/
An archive of 132 Halos cartoon strips can be found HERE
Caryn Swark is a Grade 3 teacher at St. Patrick’s Fine Arts School in Lethbridge Alberta.
Her personal website can be found at http://carynswark.wordpress.com/
An archive of 132 Halos cartoon strips can be found HERE
Caryn Swark is a Grade 3 teacher at St. Patrick’s Fine Arts School in Lethbridge Alberta.
Her personal website can be found at http://carynswark.wordpress.com/
An archive of 132 Halos cartoon strips can be found HERE
June 22, 2010 (Retired Teachers of Ontario, District 35, Dryden, ON)
by Frank Clarke
A record number of 24 golfers came out to the Tournament this year with a further 13 people who came to join us for lunch. I believe that is the largest gathering of members we have ever had. The weather was great and we had a great day visiting and golfing. The scoring format was pretty much as it has always been but I hope everyone enjoyed themselves in spite of it. It was a fun day of socializing, golfing, and giggling at the bad shots we made. Some people actually were rewarded for bad shots. It’s just that kind of tournament….. very serious indeed.
The big winners this year were the Beautiful Birches (Wendy Weidenhoeft, Ginette Spence, Doug Rettie and Frank Clarke) who dazzled their fellow competitors with a 29-3/4 team average. Well done group. As you can see, Doug really likes to win.
Second place went to the Sugary Maples (Gale Rettie, Thelma Sampson, Andrew Skene, Dennis Bloomfield). They had a team average of 32-1/4. Dennis appears to be totally disgusted with his prize but he actually was elated and was wondering how he was going to spend it all.
Third place honours went to the team of Hank Parks, Diane Mason, Jack Bailey, and Barry Sampson. This group was called the Quaking Aspens and if you watched them putt, you would have seen that the quaking adjective pretty much covered it. 
The fourth spot, and last as far as prizes went was awarded to the Shady Elms. I won’t even go into how they got their name but this is a pretty shady group consisting of Edgar Mason, Mardi Plomp, Fay Besselt and Don Dingwall. As you can see they were happy to get a prize, but they really wanted to be first. Edgar is just happy to get a hug.
Fifth Place went to the Crabby Apples consisting of Larry Macklen, George Gerebin, Roy McComb, and Bob Hamilton. Need I make implications about the appropriateness of their team name when you see this crew. (Although Bob looks quite happy and isn’t living up to the term “Crabby”)
In every tournament, there are winners and losers. Well, here are the losers (but only in golf, not in life). The team was called the Sturdy Oaks ( Susan Clarke, Brian Davidson, Les McPherson, Brian Kenny) but they played just a little bit too well to win under the scoring system that has been developed and finely tuned for our RTO golf tournament. I’m sure they will be back again next year to try and play less aggressively.
George Gereben won the putting contest again this year. He is the proud recipient of a five dollar bill. We were going to give him a putter for his win, but I think the one he’s got is working quite well.
Fay Besselt won the closest to the hole on number 8 with an amazing shot that landed a mere 11 feet from the pin. AND she made the putt. Congratulations Fay.
Nobody hit the green at the number three hole again so we transferred the prize money to the Ball-in-the-Water Contest. There were two winners/losers in that event so they split the prize. Susan Clarke put her ball in the pond on #7 and I’m not sure where Larry Macklen’s ball went but I’m certain it’s quite clean now.
Merit Travel donated a couple dozen golf balls which were distributed to our golfers and a $250 Travel Gift Certificate to be awarded to a lucky golfer. Every golfer’s name was put in a hat and Brian Kenny was selected to pick a name. Edgar Mason was the fortunate recipient of the Gift Certificate. Congratulations, Edgar and thanks again to Merit Travel for the wonderful prizes.
The hospitality and food were excellent. Once again Evergreen Golf owners, Rob and Debbie Alderdice and their staff kept us well fed and happy as displayed on the faces of all who attended.
Have a great summer and we hope to see you out again next year.
Caryn Swark is a Grade 3 teacher at St. Patrick’s Fine Arts School in Lethbridge Alberta.
Her personal website can be found at http://carynswark.wordpress.com/
An archive of 132 Halos cartoon strips can be found HERE
