Have you heard of TED Talks? They're anywhere from 10-30 minute videos of public speakers discussing a variety of topics from magic tricks to social justice to new inventions. One of the Grade 12 students at are school thought it would be a great idea to host our own series of "TED Talks" which we called "CTS Talks." She explained to the teachers that the students at our school don't have a lot of opportunities to work on public speaking skills in front of an audience bigger than their classroom (which at CTS is about 10 people). The English teachers from Grades 7-12 agreed that this was a great idea and made it part of our students English grade to create a TED Talk on any topic of their choice, whatever idea they wanted to spread to the entire middle and high school student body.
One of the CTS Talks was from a student in Grade 11 who was commenting on how, because of the heat and lack of access to clean drinking water, rickshaw wallahs were passing out in the streets. The student council decided that these words shouldn't fall on deaf ears, so they organized a campaign and within a few days, "Project H2O" had raised several thousand taka, bought several hundred water bottles, and together, a group of staff and students went out into the streets and handed out water bottles to anyone we saw who needed it. We were trying to target rickshaw wallahs, but if people asked, we gave. The students were so excited to be doing something that they organized to help their own community. Some of them have never walked in Dhaka their entire lives. Can you imagine? Their parents won't let them, they tell them it's not safe. This is the first time they've interacted with people living on the street and driving rickshaw's. This is the first time they've felt good about doing something solely for the benefit of someone else. This is only the beginning, but think how far they could go with this idea?
Ms. Matharoo and I invited some survivors from the Acid Survivors Foundation to join us for our final Girls Club meeting. Girls Club has been our once a week, after school activity in which we hang out with the middle school girls, discuss tough topics, build positive relationships, and just have fun being girls. The girls were so excited to meet the survivors and we got to hear some of their stories and have fun making jewelry together. One girl refused a marriage proposal at age 14 and had acid thrown on her, she is now 24 and continues to have reconstructive surgery with very visible scars on her face and arms. With ASF, they receive medical support and job training as well as psychological counselling and emotional support. Often times, these women have to return to the villages where they were attacked and live next to their perpetrators, sometimes their perpetrators are family members. The justice system here is so corrupt that there is no justice for these women, and very little protection from further abuse. One of our students was so moved by the visit that she went down to the organization the next week and signed up to volunteer. Since she speaks both Bangla and English, she has decided to take down stories from the survivors and translate them into English. This project serves as advocacy by informing others through personal stories about acid violence and also empowerment to the survivors by giving them a voice.
While I am horrified at the inhumanity of acid violence, I am amazed at the work that the people at ASF do, and I am honored that those brave women came to the school to share their stories with my students. And while I am so frustrated with world systems that keep people in poverty and withhold basic human rights like clean drinking water for all, I am inspired by my students who are willing to think of creative ways to make a difference. Who says you're too young to change the world?
"Is this the world you want? Is this the world you want? You're making it. Everyday you're alive."-Switchfoot
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