News
2010 news
We're On Tour
Excerpt from the Cranbrook Daily Townsman, Monday March 8th: .... Along with Haiti, Bangladesh is considered one of the poorest countries in the world...Munro says, "To be uneducated is as bad as being underfed. We see that every day in Bangladesh The question then becomes, what are we going to do about it? We must take on the responsibility of solving this problem." In a country of grinding poverty, you learn quickly to do whatever works, which is how Gem Munro ahd his wife Tanyss learned to build an amazingly effective teaching program in Bangladesh.
We've travelled to Vernon, Golden, Kimberley, Castlegar, Creston, Fernie, Sparwood and Cranbrook and met some great people.
See what the Vernon Morning Star has to say.
Here's what's next:
Kaslo - March 13th at 4 pm at the Library
Penticton - March 15th at 7 pm at the Library
Keremeos - March 16th at 1:30 pm at the Library
Kamloops - March 17th at 7 pm at the Library
We're also visiting schools who have invited us to do presentations for them. If you're a teacher, we may be able to manage a live presentation for your class or arrange something with your class remotely.
TV Interview with Munros
Lately, we have done two one-hour interviews - one in Nelson, BC and on February 5th , with an American radio station based out of Texas. People are really interested in how these very poor mothers are able to do so much to change their neighbourhoods. As for the mothers - they're as pleased to be in the role of being able to help others as they are learning how to read and write.
See recent interview with Shaw TV below
2007 July - December
December, 2007: We regularly receive requests from women that we establish MOI schools in their neighbourhoods. In December, we visited five neighbourhoods, all of which have up to one hundred mothers already identified and eager to enrol, and all of which suit our criteria very well: they are all very poor, and school is not available to their children. We were welcomed with warmth and hospitality in each location. All mothers expressed enthusiasm for becoming neighbourhood teachers of their own and others' children. We have teacher/supervisors trained and waiting to start. What we need is sufficient money to expand.
November, 2007: Another session of our Cooperative Education programme has been completed, with continuing good results, and many of our leaving students wish to become Mothers of Intention Projects teacher/supervisors. At their certificate ceremony, Gem had this to say: "We know why our teacher/supervisors study and teach: they teach out of love, love for their homeland, and love for humanity."
October, 2007: We are very pleased to announce the appointment of Maksuda Akther to the position of Superintendent of Schools. Maksuda was our very first teacher, and she has distinguished herself with excellent performance from the outset. Her excellence has been verified by the very impressive achievements of her students.
September, 2007: Catastrophic floods afflicted South Asia through the monsoon just past, wiping out much of the year's agricultural produce, and imposing great hardship and suffering on many millions. Our students were not spared; three of our schools were flooded out, and most of our students faced serious disease and starvation. Although emergency relief is not central to Amarok Society's aspirations, the reaction of world agencies to this crisis was so slow and inadequate, we found it necessary to distribute emergency aid to our students in the form of food, medicine, and water purification tablets.
Our teacher Suma stands in one of our flooded schools.
2007 first half
April, 2007: We are opening two new Mothers of Intention Projects in very poor neighbourhoods. Unlike the earlier projects, the lessons at these will be conducted at night, as most of the mothers attending are day labourers employed (or some might say enslaved) as bearers at construction sites or as street cleaners. This means that the mothers will labour all day, come home to cook the family meal, attend our class, and then teach their children what they've learned: a daunting prospect, certainly, but as before, these women approached us and appealed for the establishment of a project. As one working mother said to us, "I am too poor to send my children to school. My becoming their teacher is the solution for their future." One must have great respect for such women. We anticipate very large enrolments in both projects.
Meanwhile, the women of our first MOI project have decided that their school must have its own name. Their choice: Tanyss Women's School. What the name may lack in inventiveness it compensates for in appropriateness and sincerity, and Tanyss accepts the recognition with gratitude.
Maksuda and Rony, two of the lead teachers, stand outside the Tanyss Women's School
March, 2007: We have begun another Mothers of Intention Project in a poor neighbourhood quite near the Samity. As before, we are encountering bright, educable women who have been denied educational opportunity, and, as before, our teachers have identified certain talented students whose instruction will be enhanced and accelerated in order to develop them into the future teachers of the project. All the mothers understand our principle that they must teach what they learn, and they are enthusiastic students. We have allowed the enrollment of some girls in the project, as their mothers work often 14 - 16 hours a day in garment factories, and so are unable to attend the classes themselves, but are still too poor to send their children to school. The girls will become the teachers of their younger siblings.
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Mrs. Ruma Akter to the position of Adminstrative Officer, Amarok Society, South Asia. Ruma has a degree in Management and is accountant with our partner agency, Baridhara Mohila Samobaya Samity, Ltd. She has been an active participant in, and faithful supporter of, Amarok Society and our Mothers of Intention Projects right from their beginnings in the capital. We feel very fortunate to have gained her services.
Ruma Akter
February, 2007: The first phase of our programme at the banking cooperative is now nearly complete, and the second phase, of our student teachers undertaking the instruction of yet more enrollees, is underway. The first phase has, by any measure, been a real success: our student teachers have done very well, and are deeply committed to the objectives of Amarok Society, and the bank has proven to be a good partner in this endeavour.
Above women at the AGM for the Samity
Below, as Guest of Honour, Tanyss addressing the AGM
January, 2007: We have begun a Mothers of Intention Project in a very poor settlement in the city. We are being ably assisted in this by our student teachers. The women of the new project have been, for the most part, wholly uneducated until now. Most are beggars who struggle to support their families on less than a dollar a day. They are being instructed in literacy, arithmetic, and English literacy, and are applying themselves to the task of learning so that they may help their children to learn. The settlement is an illegal one, with the threat of demolition, which would include our 'classroom', a constant; our students have solemnly sworn that they will protect our whiteboards above all else, and will not listen to our efforts to set different emergency priorities for them.
2008-2009 Highlights
Autumn, 2009
The Munro family travelled across Western Canada on a book tour to raise awareness about Amarok Society and raise funds. Canadians have expressed a lot of interest in Amarok Society and the Mothers of Intention Programme. The snapshot to the left shows Alastair standing at the BC/Alberta border...en route to Winnipeg.
Take a look at an this interview on Shaw TV.
Everyone is impressed with these determined mothers who work so hard to get an education themselves, then teach their own children and their neighbour's children what they learned.
September, 2009
We opened a new school that students named thet Angela Women's School, in honour of the extraordinary dedication and hard work of Angela Macri, the Chairperson of Amarok Society
Summer, 2009; Amarok Society and our publishing associate, Tangent Books, Inc., are pleased to announce the release of 'South Asian Adventures with the Active Poor', a collection of true short stories by Gem Munro. As one might guess, they focus on the Munro family's experiences in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. All profits from the sale of this book will be donated to Amarok Society.
Special editions will also contain Azien Munro's 'Hand to Mouth in Dhaka', a superb photographic essay on CD-ROM. To find out more about this book or to order a copy, please click here
June 17, 2009
We are pleased to announce the appointment of our teacher, Rony Saiffudin, to the position of Coordinator of Mothers' Activities, which will benefit from his gift for truly empowering marginalized women. We also congratulate him on his marriage celebration to Runa. We wish the couple every happiness.
May 30, 2009: We are pleased to receive a donation of $8,000 from a large Canadian foundation who prefers their name be withheld.
Three of our Mothers of Intention students lost their houses due to a fight between some men who all claimed to be landlords for a group of shanties. During the fight, a lot of 'homes' were wrecked - walls kicked in and doors ripped off. Our teachers helped to relocate two of the women. The third, unfortunately, returned with her children to her village.
April 20, 2009: We are happy to report that the Ralph M. Barford Foundation of Toronto made a donation to Amarok Society.
February 15, 2009: We are happy to report that Haulover Investments, Ltd. of Toronto made a significant and generous donation to Amarok Society.
Older news
July 2008: A devastating fire occured in the slum neighbourhood of our first school, The Tanyss Women's School. Our school was spared, but up to 350 of the one-room shanties, each housing a family, were destroyed and a number of our students were suddenly homeles, squatting in the road in the monsoon. Amarok Society has provided emergency food supplies and medicine to those in need .
The shanties where the mothers live were built on bamboo poles over what is a large,
toxic bog, until the monsoon makes it a large pond,
so homeless families don't even have a patch of ground to which to return.
March and April, 2008: Each of our schools held a party to celebrate its anniversary and to reward scholastic achievement and top examination results.
A young mother receives a prize for her scholastic excellence.
Presenting it is Mr. Nittya Adhikary, manager of our parnter agency.
The anniversary celebrations included mothers performing songs, recitations and dances.
