Weekend-5-16

Education | Digital Learning
Teach Through Tech
An initiative by Smallfoot to provide futuristic learning to children
Moumita Ahmed
In a country like Bangladesh, education can
often be more of a privilege than a right.
Especially in cities like Dhaka, there are
hundreds of underprivileged children trying
to make a living on the streets, with little or no
thought about what the future might hold.
This is where Smallfoot, a youth driven
community of more than fifty members,
comes in to make a change, one step at
a time. They have been responsible for
providing quality education (free of cost) to
a group of underprivileged kids in the slum
area of Janata Housing, in Mirpur. They
aim to not only educate these children, but
also help the families gain social upward
mobility.
experience through visuals, and
also to teach basic computing
skills and how to navigate
for information. This will aid
in creating a better learning
process, along with laying a bold
Photos: Courtesy
Collaborating for change
It all began in January, 2013, when
Smallfoot collaborated with the YES Alumni
Bangladesh, an association of alumni
which successfully completes the Kennedy-
Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (KL-YES)
program funded by the United States. In
collaboration with the organisation, Smallfoot
started its program to teach 12 students, the
objective of which was to provide them with
the same standard of education which more
privileged children in the country are blessed
with.
These children were initially recruited
through an announcement around Janata
Housing at Mirpur in the capital, and children
who used to go to schools and then couldn’t
study further, or kids who have never been
to a school before and were eager to study,
were admitted. After doing this for a year,
the students were transferred to Time
International Academy, where they are
studying with all the other children in the area
till date.
This year, Smallfoot has won a grant from
Harpur Edge through the Harpur Fellows
Program for the purpose of launching another
initiative - “Tech Through Tech.” The purpose of
this initiative is to provide futuristic learning to
children – including students of Smallfoot and
other children aged between 8-12 years from
nearby slum areas, who don’t have access to
computers.
Preparing them for the future
“The idea is to encourage learning through
technology and provide an interactive learning
infrastructure that will enable the project to
expand and grow to become a model for a
futuristic education platform,” said Gulshan
Jubaed Prince, one of the initiators of the
project.
So on August 12, their first step
towards ensuring proper execution and
implementation of the program took place.
The inauguration of “Teach Through Tech” was
conducted by Smallfoot at Hive, in Dhanmondi,
along with the YES Alumni Bangladesh and
Harpur Fellows Program, who are the initiators
of the project as well.
“We have already started taking the lab
classes in our school and have even managed
to take four classes before the
inauguration,” said Gulshan.
Children who couldn’t even turn
on computers before are now
learning how to use software
such as Paint and MS Word, and
surfing the internet.
“Smallfoot will be hosting
these lab classes for two hours
during the weekend (Friday and Saturday)
for the next six months at Time International
school, in the Janata Housing area. These
sessions will consist of 10 students, who will be
assisted by five volunteers who have returned
after the completion of their exchange
programs,” informed Jubaed.
“Teach Through Tech” has also gotten
support from ecommerce store Daraz.com.
bd. They gave the laptops at a discounted
price and provided additional goodies to the
children. Techynaf, an IT Firm based in Dhaka,
is providing the technological support and
necessary training for the project. •
WEEKEND TRIBUNE | FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 2017 19