About Karmoyoga
Karmoyoga, established in 2002 (Reg. Dha-06490), is an association of social workers in Bangladesh. We have undertaken projects that cater to social services. Currently, we have two schools. One is for children with special needs, named Scholars Special School (estd. in 1995). Here, we teach children from Playgroup till Grade VIII. The other one is for the underprivileged children, named Uttaran School for the Underprivileged (estd. 2005). As our name suggests, we look forward to committing ourselves into other social services in the near future. The founder principal of the schools under Karmayoga Samajseba Samiti, Manju Banerjee (1943-2016), had always strived to serve humanity to the best of her abilities.
About Scholars Special School
As a project under Karmoyoga Samajseba Samiti, Scholars Special School began its journey in 1995 as an initiative for providing need-based education to the special children. Later, the institution was registered under the supervision of the Welfare Ministry in 2002. It has been around twenty-nine years since Scholars Special School has begun its journey of educating the children with special needs. At present, we have approximately twenty-nine students. We are currently at 11/16, Iqbal Road, Mohammadpur, Dhaka-1207. We have teachers who have excelled at designing syllabi and activities for students, namely singing, dancing, painting with various media, and other regular skills like cooking, baking, and handicraft practices such as sewing, painting potteries and earthenware, block-making, and producing wax-candles and paper-packets. Through these activities, we ensure that the children develop the ability to work independently. Most importantly, we try to provide these children with the extra care that they require, and these activities are designed to build connections between the students and the teachers, as well as to enhance their physical mental development. We would like to increase the number of teachers with special trainings required to take care of these students and the necessary teaching aids, as well as a physician and a psychiatrist, to supervise the physical and mental health of these students. We also look forward to extending our shifts, due to the increasing number of students.
Counselling
Often the parents of these children worry about their future, due to their underdeveloped physical and mental conditions. We try to support the parents by providing counselling both at school and at home.
Counselling at school
It is with this idea that Scholars Special School at regular intervals invites the guardians to sessions of group and individual counselling. The guardians and the teachers exchange information, ideas and opinions about the children. These sessions of such exchange contribute very much to preparation and further development of both long and short terms for our students.
Home-Visits and Counselling
We arrange home-visits and some supplementary counselling at the homes of our students. We generally include one doctor and a psychiatrist in the team that pays such visits. So far all our activities are combinations of professional knowledge and voluntary services. However, we are being urged upon to go for institution-building and more professionalism.
Some stories of achievements
As a result of the dedicated efforts of our teachers, an annual number of twenty-eight students on an average have received high quality care and education from Scholar Special School in the last twenty-nine years. They have overcome many of their handicaps and deficiencies, and are much better placed to face life practically. 6-7 students of this school could shift to normal education during the last twenty-nine years. Also Prithwi, then a student of standard three, secured prizes for painting in a number of large-scale competitions. Guardians are very much satisfied about the sincere care that the teachers at this school take of their students, in spite of the limited facilities.
Future and Further
With the increasing number of students, we wish to create facilities for their accommodation. Therefore, we plan to undertake initiatives of providing hostel and transport services. For this, we look forward to conducting surveys, based on whose results, we shall arrange for activities that will allow advocacy and soliciting with the concerned department of the Government.
About Uttoran School
We started the project, Uttoran School for underprivileged Children 19 years ago we have gladly served approximately 50 children coming from around the area of our school in Mohammadpur. These children now study in standards One, Two and Three. They are given lessons in Bengali, English, and Mathematics. They are supplied with necessary textbooks, stationeries, uniforms, as well as supporting transportation costs, required to support their studentship. Under Karmayoga Samajseba Samiti, we try to aid these students into building a bright future. As the students complete their primary education, we look forward to offering courses in vocational education and small loans to help them become entrepreneurs. We intend to include other such activities in the near future. We wish to extend our services and facilities for our underprivileged students further.
An Appeal from the Commitee Members
Unfortunately, as successors, we cannot capacitate the further facilities required at Scholar Special School and Uttoran School for the Underprivileged Children, due to insufficient funds. After the demise of our Founder Principal in 2016, we have suffered a lack of leadership, good administration, and management for both of the schools, most profoundly during the Corona Pandemic. Nevertheless, we did not stop our services, despite the challenges. Therefore, we extend our request for support to those within and beyond national boundaries, who share such similar beliefs. We further look forward to every advice for each step we take.
