About 3.4 million people live in some 5000 slums of Dhaka city. Life for the slum people is full of miseries and sufferings. Poor financial status of the family and ignorance of the parents often interrupt education of the children which ultimately pushes them to hazardous jobs. Aparajeyo-Bangladesh introduced the project “Developing a conducive environment for urban disadvantaged children” which aims to contribute to the development of a conducive environment and to the improvement of the living conditions of urban disadvantaged children in order to promote social changes and develop alternative lifestyles so that they can assert their basic rights.
The project intends to provide basic education and day care support to the slum children through 12 day care centres and 4 community based education centres located at Dhaka Metropolitan city. It also ensures nutritious food, treatment, psychological, recreational & legal support, children’s participation, capacity building and vocational training to the children. Furthermore, it initiates community mobilization campaign through organizing parents and community meetings. The project also operates two 24-hours shelter homes for boys and girls each which support the vulnerable street children through providing safe shelter, nutritious food, non-formal and formal education support, preventive and curative treatment, psychological and recreational support, capacity building, children’s participation, skills and vocational training followed by job placement. Moreover, involving a large number of communities into the project activities ensures social protection of theses children and creates opportunity for their successful social rehabilitation. All the children enrolled into the project get long-term individual sponsorship support.