Universal Children’s Day :

How many of us take a bit of time out of our demanding schedules to think about those less fortunate ? How many of us take the initiative to improve life for those people ? For those of us that are eager to help out but don’t know how, JAAGO Foundation provides a great guideline. JAAGO Foundation supplies many underprivileged and poverty stricken children with hope of a better future.

Founded in April 2007 by Mr. Korvi Rakshand, JAAGO has come a long way in these three years. The first project taken on by the foundation was to distribute relief to the 2007 flood victims in Rayer Bazaar, Dhaka. After seeing the appalling living conditions of the children residing in the Rayer Bazaar slums, the JAAGO team formed the idea for their first life-size project: A free of cost English medium school for the children of the Rayer Bazaar area. That programme remains the principle guiding factor of the foundation. At present there are 280 lucky students reaping the benefits of the institution. English was the chosen medium of instruction for the school as learning to communicate in the international language will create a more concrete base for their futures.

The organization has come up with a number of development projects focusing on the sectors of formal education, non-formal education, health & nutrition, public/private health sector development, skill development training, women’s empowerment, information technology, environmental management and so on. At JAAGO, they understand that education is not the only stepping stone needed to build a better society.

Having already brought about such positive results since its inception, you may wonder what JAAGO’s plans for the future are. JAAGO Foundation intends to have a fully operational branch in every district of Bangladesh, to help as many children as possible.... ‘As a young adult of this generation, I can’t turn away from the millions of faces that stare at me blankly, Blank as they have stopped hoping for a better future, stopped asking for an extra meal and stopped expecting anything from the world anymore,’ says Korvi. Such passion and care to reach out to the children is the driving force of the foundation, cementing the idea that the institution will continue to grow.

JAAGO Foundation currently has three Major Sources of Funds :

Child sponsorship, project/program sponsorship and Donation. A monthly amount of BDT 1,000 is collected from each of the 200 sponsors for the 200 children under the child sponsorship program.

The organization also manages to receive project/program sponsorships from various corporate parties. In addition, the members of JAAGO give donations from time to time. These funds, along with voluntary donations from individuals, constitute of the total funding of the organization.

(If you are interested in sponsoring the Universal Children’s Day event or making donation, simply write your name/affiliation, medium of donation, event to which you would like to contribute and email it to (info@jaago.com.bd)

Universal Children’s Day is still an obscure celebration in Bangladesh. However, each year JAAGO create waves of awareness with their massive Universal Children’s Day programme. This year, they will have 1000 volunteers and 1000 street children involved that is double the amount of last year.

Scores of volunteers are recruited to switch lives with the poor street urchins that roam the streets of Bangladesh. For one day, these children are taken off the streets to have a fun day with JAAGO volunteers. They are entrained, fed and taken care of. On this same day, hundreds of volunteers disperse onto the busy streets, armed with flowers, cotter candy, popcorn and good will.