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Three cousins - Ratna,
Shakila and Rupali are the grade four students of boat school in
the north-western part of Bangladesh, which is seasonally
flooded every year. Boat school has become an integral part of
their life, comes every afternoon to their village six days in a
week. The three sisters come to the school as a group. They sit
in the front row and attend the class. Ratna is the most
studious student of her class, known as the First Girl.
Ratna Khatun, a ten
years’ old girl, was born in a landless family at the Madhyapara
village of Chalanbeel, largest wetland of the country. ‘My
father was not ready to send me to school as I am a girl child.
One day Nasrin Apa (boat school teacher) came to my parents and
told him to send me to school as it comes to our village’, said
Ratna. ‘Now Ratan (brother) also goes to the boat school. He is
a grade one student’ Ratna added.
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Deljan begum, 60 years old, Ratna’s grand
mother does not know how to count. Often she was poorly paid
when she tried to sale her agricultural products to the market.
Ratna’s education at boat school proved a great help to her. She
helps grand mother in counting money when she sales the
crystallized form of date juice to local market. Finally Deljan
made a profit last year and rewarded Ratna with a goat. Along
with another goat borrowed from neighbour, Ratna started to rear
goats. Ratna has three goats now and plans to have a family of
ten-twelve goats. ‘I want to sale some of my goats to market in
future and then buy a cow. It will give us milk and help my
father in agriculture’ said Ratna. ‘Also I shall keep some of
the goats. Because I play with them in the evening. Sometimes
the goats are lost, I start looking for them everywhere and
finally find it at my home. Goats know their way back to home’
Ratna added. Sakila, Ratna’s cousin says ‘‘Ratna inspires us a
lot –I along with Rupali have started to rear four goats.’’ |
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On a foggy morning of
this year’s winter, Ratna sitting at the courtyard of her
thatched house, expresses her dream for future, ‘ I get medicine
from boats, it helps us when we are sick, that’s why I want to
be a doctor, like the doctor in the healthcare boat. I want to
help my village people during the disaster.’ Indeed, in the
remote river basins of north-western Bangladesh flooding is
having a profound impact. ‘Water surrounds our village, we have
no way to move but to use the raft’ said Ratna. ‘In spite of the
situation we have, we still can continue study at the boat
school’ she said.
Jarina Kathun, Ratna’s
mother said, ‘Ratna taught us how to write our names and count
money. She helps us to understand letters’. Jarina attended
group meeting on women right issues. ‘It helped me to know our
rights to education and information. Now I hope to bring up my
children in a better way’ Jarina said. Shidhulai boats use
onboard solar Photovoltaic modules to generate all the
electricity needed and distributes the surplus energy among the
families through solar lamps. Shidhulai develops these low cost
lamps. ‘The solar lamps help us a lot. I can stitch kathas
during the night while I am free. Then I sell it to the market.
With the income we can provide better food and clothes to Ratna
and Ratan.’ She added. ‘I can study well at the night, also my
sister spends more time on reading books and getting good exam
results’ said 5 years old Ratan.
Along the winding
rivers that flow around the mud-hut villages, mosques and rice
fields here, 230 miles north-west of the capital, the boat
schools are so loved that crowds of children cheer upon seeing
them dock. Each boat school consists of a classroom for 30 to 35
students, computer, hundreds of books, and electronic resources.
‘I really love computer. I can write names of Shakila, Rupali …
… … any name. I enjoy cartoons on the monitor. I have learnt
many things – health & hygiene and child rights. I also borrow
books from here. I read off the story book and my brother
listens to it. Sometimes my grand morther asks me to bring
religious books. I read and she listens.’
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