JAAGO Foundation

The JAAGO Foundation is a civil society organization established in April 2007 and based in Bangladesh.^[1] JAAGO operates with the help of its employees and volunteer platform Volunteer for Bangladesh to work towards the betterment of people living below the poverty line. The JAAGO Foundation currently has 13 schools spread all over Bangladesh catering free of cost to the education needs of 2,200 underprivileged children.^[2] One of JAAGO's major annual events is the 'Universal Children's Day'.^[3] The foundation has more than 20,000^[4] volunteers via its volunteer platform 'Volunteer for Bangladesh' who celebrate this day by raising awareness for children's rights.

History

In April 2007, Korvi Rakshand, a law school student, started a movement with some friends to distribute relief to the flood victims at the slums of Rayer Bazaar in Dhaka city. Later he expanded this program to establish the JAAGO Foundation with the hope of ‘breaking the cycle of poverty through education’. Although JAAGO originally started out by providing free of cost primary school education to the children of Rayer Bazaar, it slowly started to expand its activities for women empowerment and health awareness for the impoverished people of Bangladesh.^[5]

Activities

JAAGO Foundation School

In 2007, The JAAGO Foundation started its School with 17 children^[1] on a piece of carpet, and a white board. It has now expanded to 13 fully functional branches, and over 2200 students. The JAAGO School is the first of its kind to provide free of cost education of international standards to the destitute children of Bangladesh.^[2] The primary course of instruction is English although students are also taught to have a very strong background in Bengali. In September 2011, JAAGO Foundation began its first online school as a pilot program. Out of the 13 existing schools 10 are 'Online Schools'.^[6]

Women empowerment

The JAAGO foundation collaborates with Bachhara, an Australian designer label, to use the principles of ethical trade and develop solutions for women empowerment. Designs from Bachhara are sent to the JAAGO Foundation Sewing Centre, which are then transformed into high-end clothing by the employees of the sewing centre. The employees are mostly women from the Rayer Bazaar slum who are paid wages higher than the average workers in Bangladesh and are also able to work in the safe environment of the JAAGO Foundation Sewing Centre.^[7]

Other activities

Volunteer For Bangladesh

Through Volunteer for Bangladesh, JAAGO Foundation, for the first time in Bangladesh, provided the youth a voice and a platform. This concern of JAAGO Foundation is a nationwide association of Volunteer Action Groups that work for the betterment of their individual communities and the nation as a whole. Volunteer for Bangladesh plans to establish Volunteer Action Groups around 64 districts of Bangladesh and is supported by the US Embassy, Dhaka.^[8]

International operations

JAAGO has now opened supporting branches^[9] in Australia, UK, US, Oman, Qatar, Malaysia and Canada. Most of these branches are operated by native nationals who once worked as volunteers for JAAGO.

Awards

• Arthakantha Business Award (2010) - Best CSR Performance Award
• Mosaic Talent Award 2010 - Mosaic International Award
• - Commonwealth Youth Awards 2013 ^[10]

References

External links

• Official website