Doorstep learning for girls in domestic work

In Bangladesh, it is illegal for children under 14 to work. Despite this, an estimated 4.8 million children are employed full time, many doing labour in domestic settings. Many poor families depend on their children’s labour to enable them to survive financially. The global pandemic has made this bad situation even worse.  

Where possible UKBET provided micro grants/interest free small loans to enable families to revive businesses or resume jobs lost due to the pandemic. UKBET also raised funds to support the families struggling to buy food.  Rotary International supported UKBET in organising a medical camp for the children and their families; 107 people attended and were seen by doctors and given treatment and free medicine as appropriate. Our key beneficiaries are extremely vulnerable families driven by poverty to send their children to work instead of school. Exposure to long hours of physical work, poor food, low or no wages and vulnerability seriously damages these children’s physical and mental health. 

The Doorstep Learning programme providing literacy, numeracy and life skills to children aged 5 to 14 working in domestic settings continued with one to one lessons in the homes of employers.  

During lockdown regular contact with the families of working children was maintained by telephone with calls made enquiring about their wellbeing, providing information related to the pandemic and connecting families with Government services. Similarly calls were also made to employers. Strict hygiene procedures were put in place and awareness raised about the critical importance of mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing.10000 Information leaflets and 2500 masks were distributed. Additionally sets of home learning materials were developed by UKBET staff and distributed to children. 

Fieldworkers resumed visits to families from September 2020 and saw at first hand the extreme suffering of the families of the children. In a survey 124 families told fieldworkers that their lack of money was so desperate they had no alternative but to seek employment for many of their 1,128 children when the lockdown ended.  In previous years UKBET's interventions in the lives of working children and their families have been significantly successful with none of the siblings of working children in our programme following their brothers or sisters into work.  Predictions by the Campaign for Popular Education  Bangladesh indicate that one third of children will be forced to leave school and many of them become child workers due to the devastating impact of the pandemic on the health and poverty of the poorest families in Bangladesh. 

At present, Doorstep learning project is supporting 128 girls to get basis education, literacy and like skills. We also support interested, eligible girls to join vocational training.
 
Please make a regular or one-off donation to UKBET today – this will enable us to continue giving transformative support to working children and their families, like Tania, during this difficult time.