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.