LOTUS CHILDREN'S EDUCATION TRUST -LCET

REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1170236

CURRENT PROJECTS

 At present the core activity of LCET is delivered from the ‘Lotus Children’s Home (LCH). We have recently built two residential dormitories: one for girls and the other for boys, donated by CHT development board and Firefly Mission respectively, in a remote area of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Please read our reports about these donations.  We provide free foods, accommodations, tuitions, educational equipment, sanitary etc. to 103 destitute in 2020 and orphaned children plus 4 residential teachers, who look after the well-being of children and 2 cooks. Without the facility of the ‘Lotus Children’s Home’ these children will have no or very limited chance to attend school and access to a clean and safe living environment because they are coming from very remote, hilly places where no school available in their areas and they are extremely poor people.  Along with school curriculum, these children also receive specially designed classes on ethics, morality and sustainability. This will help them understand the nature around their home and become productive to the society. Our project operates as exactly stated in aims and objectives. (See our aims and objectives and mission statement).

However, at present we can only accept limited numbers of students due to the lack of funds. We managed to provide full facilities for 30 children in 2016. We have just increased these numbers to 65 in January, 2019, and 103 in 2020, planning to increase these numbers to 130 in 2021 depending on people's supports. Well- this is competitive world. Many organizations have been working with their own goal. Each organization claims to be genuine in terms of delivering the project objectives. We understand and respect it. Honestly, we do have the same feeling but a completely different approach. We are specialized and professional trust dedicated to change our society from the grassroots level. Even though the life of our projects is now only 5- 6 years, we have managed to change the life of many destitute children. Our evidence suggests that the children, who are under our supervisions and supports, are proved to be better in terms of their thinking, performance, behaviour and attitude. 

We are working hard in seeking supporters for students’ requisites - i.e. food, educational supplies etc. You can sponsor a child with only $25.00 (USA) for a month. This cost includes foods, accommodation, sanitary and educational equipment.  You can join other to sponsor a child with as little as $3.00 or you can donate a half of a child expenses with $13.00 a month.  Currently, there are 13 teachers at the school, who are kindly serving on a salary of £50 (5000.00 BDT roughly) a month (only half of the target salary).  

LOTUS Primary and Junior-high School: Lotus residential primary school was launched in January 2019 following the beginning of school calendar in Bangladesh. Previously, our primary students have to walk more than 2 miles on the hazardous road during the monsoon rain while junior and high school students take the local transports to attend their classes. They too have problems with the timely arrival at the school. On the other hand, it is not easy for us to pay the required transport fees every day. This led us to establish our own residential school, which will help better impact in terms of our aims and purposes of running Lotus Children Home. The primary school is now running with four teachers and two of them are living with us and the other two are travelling from a different region. These teachers are not funded by the local government but the local government has authorized us to run from class 1 to 4 in 2019. The education department of the local government also oversees us and regulates the teaching systems in line with the Bangladesh government’s education policy.

 As for the teacher’s wages, we can only afford to pay 5000 Taka which is about £50 ($65) a month. Generally, the government’s salary for a primary school’s teacher is about 22000 Taka- an equivalent to £280 ($350) roughly.  So, at the moment, they are rather working as volunteers for LCH’s Primary School Project. This was a response to the urgent need of our children’s education and the children from the village around us. Now, both local children and our resident children are benefited from us. We are planning to register this school with the ministry of education either in 2020 or in 2021 but within this or next year; we may have to prove our ability of running the school.  Generally it takes 3-5 years to get recognition from the government but it will depend on how political spectrum plays role in the region. 

 Our primary agreement with teachers is to pay BDT 5000 thousands monthly, roughly $65 for the first year, but then later their salary will increase up to BDT 10000.00 roughly $130. But we are still struggling to pay 5000.00 BDT for a teacher, even after two years of their teaching roles.  We know our efforts are limited as none of us is rich in terms of financial circumstances but our heart is rich in terms of compassion and wisdom.  With this big heart, our only choice is go ahead with our objectives. Let us work together for this precious goal! This will benefit not only by the Lotus resident students but also by the village- students within the Lotus Education Project area. 

We have to work two things together now: one is for the survival of our Lotus resident children while the other is to run both primary and junior-high school because the establishment of LCH will be meaningless if we do not have a school to teach our children.

Followings lists are our current activities funded by our limited funds. Please find our recent funds here for foods. If you are interested to help this noble cause, you are welcome to share your generosity for the costs below:

1)    Monthly expenses for a student’s foods, soaps, bills, school items etc. roughly cost $25.00 and for 103 students (2020 whole year) $25*103 = $2575.00 US dollars. This is the minimum cost we can afford to provide for a child. Please visit the previous years' report. We are looking for sponsors a dining hall to avoid eating in an open space.

2)    There are 12 teachers for both primary and junior-high schools in 2020. 4 of them are resident at Lotus Children's Home and they look after the children at the LCH.  Each teacher salary for a month roughly costs $100.00 *12 teachers= $1200.00 US dollars. Until now, these teachers are kindly serving with a half of the originally intended salary.

3)    To build a two -stories attached primary and junior-high school building roughly costs $50,000 -55,000.00 US dollars (as estimated by a local builder). We welcome your active participation in this noble project; please email us: lotuschildreneducation@gmail.com  We will send you our engineer's map. We, however, manage to build a temporary junior -high school but primary school is still poorly, and require to build it in coming year 2021. 

4).    Training on environmental sustainability and basic health knowledge to the local people, which will be held twice a year, and each training needs to spend about 500 US dollars.  

5).    Mindfulness Training and Capacity Building Program for residents and registered people (from local and different regions) on every first Friday of the month. It has been running free of charge but not many people are not interested due to the fact that they have to work everyday in their farms or laboring job. We learn from this practice that people in this region are thinking as this: survival is important than learning mindfulness or philosophy in the capacity building program. We may close this program in near future. 

You are welcome to send your donation, in whatever amount, directly to Bangladesh or, if you are in the EU, you may donate to our UK account either by a monthly standing order of £3.00 p/m or more, or by a one-off donation. Every penny donated is meaningful for this project. Please see read our income and expenditure's report here. Donate here!

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