uncultured
Five Months Later...
This is a follow-up photo taken in the same spot five months ago. You can check that photo out here:
www.flickr.com/photos/uncultured/1362557934/
and here about it on my blog here:
uncultured.com/2007/09/17/one-difference-at-a-time/
Five months ago, I met this single mother of two while trying to make a difference in a rural village in Bangladesh. This mother was a widow - her husband had died of a stomach disease and she was left to raise two kids. The eldest was currently enrolled in school but, according to the locals, she was seriously considering abandoning them due to financial reasons.
That's where my family stepped in. I'm just a student trying to make a difference - I'm not an NGO or charity. The first thing we did was give this some financial support. My mother and I committed to paying all expenses required to keep the eldest son in school. My aunt provided them with clothes (which is why they are wearing shirts now).
I noticed that this family couldn't afford electricity. And, even during the day, this house was very dark (it was a mud and straw hut). So one of the things I did was give them a wind-up flashlight. You can't get these here in Bangladesh. I bought it for five bucks in Wal-Mart - it's basically a long lasting camping flashlight. The eldest son was able to use it to study at night. He just finished graduated from Grade One.
I also gave them an insecticide treated mosquito net kindly donated to me by Vestergaard-Frandsen ( vestergaard-frandsen.com ). This PermaNet ( www.permanet.com ) is a long-lasting, insecticide treated, dirt-resistant mosquito net. This product lives up to its name! I came and found out that it didn't have a single tear or rip in it. It also had never needed to be washed - but it looked great. I was also surprised to hear that this mosquito net helped fight off a cockroach infestation. Cockroaches used to crawl around their bed at night. Now, the place is cockroach free.
I had flipped the LCD on my camera so I could frame the shot. The first time they saw an LCD screen was when I came to visit them the first time. The two kids were more interested in seeing what was on the screen than smiling. Trust me - they're always smiling off-camera :P
Five Months Later...
This is a follow-up photo taken in the same spot five months ago. You can check that photo out here:
www.flickr.com/photos/uncultured/1362557934/
and here about it on my blog here:
uncultured.com/2007/09/17/one-difference-at-a-time/
Five months ago, I met this single mother of two while trying to make a difference in a rural village in Bangladesh. This mother was a widow - her husband had died of a stomach disease and she was left to raise two kids. The eldest was currently enrolled in school but, according to the locals, she was seriously considering abandoning them due to financial reasons.
That's where my family stepped in. I'm just a student trying to make a difference - I'm not an NGO or charity. The first thing we did was give this some financial support. My mother and I committed to paying all expenses required to keep the eldest son in school. My aunt provided them with clothes (which is why they are wearing shirts now).
I noticed that this family couldn't afford electricity. And, even during the day, this house was very dark (it was a mud and straw hut). So one of the things I did was give them a wind-up flashlight. You can't get these here in Bangladesh. I bought it for five bucks in Wal-Mart - it's basically a long lasting camping flashlight. The eldest son was able to use it to study at night. He just finished graduated from Grade One.
I also gave them an insecticide treated mosquito net kindly donated to me by Vestergaard-Frandsen ( vestergaard-frandsen.com ). This PermaNet ( www.permanet.com ) is a long-lasting, insecticide treated, dirt-resistant mosquito net. This product lives up to its name! I came and found out that it didn't have a single tear or rip in it. It also had never needed to be washed - but it looked great. I was also surprised to hear that this mosquito net helped fight off a cockroach infestation. Cockroaches used to crawl around their bed at night. Now, the place is cockroach free.
I had flipped the LCD on my camera so I could frame the shot. The first time they saw an LCD screen was when I came to visit them the first time. The two kids were more interested in seeing what was on the screen than smiling. Trust me - they're always smiling off-camera :P