Solar-powered school boats bring classes to Bangladesh villages when floods close the roads
In flood-prone Bangladesh, the organisation Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha runs solar-powered school boats that collect children from riverside stops and hold class on board, even when monsoon rains have flooded the roads. The boats help girls in particular keep going to school.
During the monsoon in Bangladesh, rain can flood the earthen roads that children use to get to school. Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, a Bangladeshi organisation, brings the school to them instead.
Each school boat starts the day as a school bus, stopping at riverside points to collect children. Then it docks and class begins. A floating school holds three classes a day, each for 30 students, with a laptop, hundreds of books and electronic resources, and teaches primary education up to grade five. The curriculum includes lessons on protecting the environment and conserving water.
The boats are solar powered, which lets them hold late evening classes for children who work during the day. Some students receive the organisation's own solar lanterns as scholarships.
The organisation says the floating schools greatly increase access to education, particularly for girls, who may not be allowed to travel long distances to school and who face the risk of child marriage. Floating schools also teach girls and women new skills and their rights.
The same idea runs through the rest of its work. Some boats are floating libraries with up to 1,500 books and laptops with internet access, where people of all ages learn computer skills. Floating clinics bring doctors and free medicines to riverside villages, and farmers learn to grow vegetables and raise fish and ducks on floating farms.
When floods cut villages off, a boat makes sure children, especially girls, can keep learning.
Source: Our Work (Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha).
Written by the HappyGood desk from the primary source linked above and checked against it. Every story links its source. Corrections: [email protected].
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