Amarok Society

The inevitable photo of adorable children with big appealing eyes
The inevitable photo of adorable children with big appealing eyes

Amarok Society empowers very poor mothers to build a brighter future for their children and neighbourhood by teaching them to be neighbouhood teachers.  Did you know that there are over 70 million children in the world too poor to go to school today? Growing up in the slums of Bangladesh, children like this are doomed to extreme poverty and suffering without any means of escape.

Our schools are not for these very poor children  - we teach their mothers how to read and write, and then teach them to be teachers of their own and their neighbours' children - a much-lauded model of sustainability and economy.

Take a good look at the children in the photo above. The reality is that the children actually are adorable, and they do look to people and nations of greater prosperity with hopeful appeal, generation after generation, until the inevitabilities of their lives crush hope. We’re trying to justify hopefulness in the children pictured here through helping their Mothers-of-Intention to become real catalysts of change.

 Find out how to Adopt a Mother 

 

Our Mothers of Intention on Video

Sonia

Sonia, a student at an Amarok Society Women's School, introduces herself:
"My name is Sonia. My husband's name is Barbas. I am a housewife. I have one daughter. I come here to learn something. I teach a neighbour's daughter. I want to [make teaching] my job. I am here for one year. Now I can read and write [English, Bangla and arithmetic]." 

Learning to Spell Gun

A short video of one of our schools in operation, "Learning to Spell Gun".

Take a Closer Look

Take a closer look  into a classroom, including a message from our Director, Dr. Tanyss Munro

 

 

 

 

Our mission is to teach mothers to teach families.

 

If you teach a mother, you teach a family.

If you teach five mothers, you teach a neighbourhood.

 

We go where no one else goes to do what no one else does. With our partner organization, a large women's financial cooperative operating in the slums of Dhaka, we take young mothers who, by poverty and social and religious convention have been denied any education themselves, and make them the very hope of their families and neighbourhoods. We harness and enhance the power of motherhood to the benefit of all humanity.   As one mother, a labourer at construction sites, says, "I can't afford to send my children to school. My teaching them is the solution to their future."

 

South Asian Adventures with the Active Poor

Early response to Gem Munro's book of stories about the people and events of AS' operations has been entirely enthusiastic, with descriptions such as "wonderful", "gripping", "inspiring", "marvellous" repeatedly applied. You can have a great read while supporting a great cause, as all profits from its sale are donated to AS. Visit our 'Products' page to find out more.