I’m walking through an icy wind that cuts like a knife, snowflakes falling on the ground. Was it really two weeks ago that I felt the sun shining in my face, saw colourful rickshaws everywhere I looked, smelled the curries and dried fish and was welcomed by girls with flowers in their hands?

Our welcome at Mukti project, Cox’s Bazar (photo: Claudia van Harten)

In many ways, Bangladesh could not have been more different to the Netherlands and it was a week full of surprises and amazements. However, when it comes to the children there is not much of a difference to children in the Netherlands or anywhere else in the world. Their dream is to become a teacher, doctor, pilot or lawyer. They love to sing and dance and they are curious to know what your favourite food is or how many brothers and sisters you have.

But if all children are the same, then why do they still not have equal opportunities all around the world? It is a fact that makes me quite sad. But sadness doesn’t get you anywhere and that’s exactly what people must have thought in Bangladesh. I was very inspired to see that there are so many good initiatives and projects in Bangladesh that are working to create a better world and future for children.

Listen to this audio file: three boys at Mukti project sang for us. Normally they sing these songs at the beach to collect money from tourists.

I am back home again, on the other side of the planet, and I keep thinking about all the children we met during the week. They were funny, sweet, curious and clever. They touched my heart and I was impressed by their eagerness to go to school, to get knowledge and to take opportunities that their parents never had. Their lives are not a bed of roses, but the children seem to have an incredible willpower to reach their goals. If we can continue to give them just that bit of support that they need, they will have a bright future ahead of them!

Children I met during the week (photo: Claudia van Harten)

Coming home after having walked the streets of Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh was quite confronting. It felt like a reversed culture shock. The streets in the Netherlands were so quiet and traffic so organized – where is everybody? Where is the pulse and busyness? Everything is so grey – where are those amazing colors? Opening the front door to my house and remembering the way families live in the slums of Mohammedpur, Dhaka – it makes me feel humble and privileged.

This experience will stay with me for the rest of my life. My most precious memory brings me back to the evening we were special guests at the cultural program of the Rakhaing Development Foundation (RDF). The Rakhaing people are one of the ethnic minority groups in Bangladesh with their own script and language. Not only does the foundation provide mother-tongue-based multilingual education for the children of the Rakhaing community, it also makes sure their cultural heritage is secured. This evening we were treated to a selection of their traditional songs and dance, performed by the children and their teachers. A fantastic evening! By the end of the night, we were invited on stage while all the children joined us and we sang together. Although we did not speak each other’s language, we were connected through music!

Connected through music with the children of RDF (Photo: Sabine Wagner)

I found it quit difficult to respond to my colleagues, friends and family when they asked me about the trip. Where do I begin explaining? Obviously there are still a lot of challenges in Bangladesh and it is not possible to stop child labor overnight. But I strongly believe Bangladesh “shall overcome someday”.

The changes that are made by the heroes of Save the Children and their local partners like CPD, BPF, MUKTI, RDF and Shishur Khamatayan make a positive contribution to the lives of so many children every day. At UCEP (Underprivileged Children’s Educational Programs), one of the largest partners in Bangladesh, we learned the costs for one child to complete grades 1–5 at their project is only EUR 500. When a child completes grades 1–8 and additional vocational training, their income increases by 450% and instead of having to work in the informal sector with hazardous conditions, their opportunities in the formal working sector and therefore a better life improve drastically.

Girls attending school at Shishur Khamatayan project (Photo: Heleen Vink)

We, customers and co-workers at IKEA, can contribute to this positive change by supporting our annual Soft Toys for Education campaign. I hope that by having shared this experience with you, it is clear how important this campaign is and you feel motivated and inspired to contribute to it this November and December. I am sure I will and I will think about the amazing children we met in Bangladesh!

The Swiss IKEA co-workers – Sabine, Chantal, Colin and Theres – have been back home from our fantastic IWitness trip to Bangladesh for a week. Many of our thoughts are still in Bangladesh and we can’t stop thinking of….

- …the fact that this trip made the world feel so much smaller and Bangladesh so much closer to us.

- …that it felt like we were gone for so much longer than one week and that you can get so many new impressions and so much inspiration in such a short time.

- …the tasty food which we of course ate as the locals do, with our right hand.

- …the hard reality many children are facing working to earn money to support their families.

- …the confidence and lust for life which we sensed among the people.

- …how strongly we wish that every child in the world could get the chance to be a child, to receive an education and the opportunity to make the best out of their lives.

- …the kids wearing the biggest smiles and aspiring to be teachers, pilots and engineers!

- …the fact that it’s quite normal for a family with seven people to live in a room not bigger than 5 square metres.

- …that we didn’t fell off the rickshaws or mini taxis in the crazy traffic situation in Dhaka.

- …all the colours, while being back to a Switzerland in winter where everyone’s favourite colour seems to be black.

- …our gratefulness that we were able to be part of this trip and life-changing experience.

- …the huge importance the donations from the IKEA Foundation and Save the Children’s work do for the children in Bangladesh, providing them with education for a better future.

/ Chantal Rütsche, Colin Ward, Sabine Wagner & Theres Wirell

The Swiss and Dutch IKEA co-workers saying good bye to Bangladesh and to Mr. Carrot, who now lives in Save the Children's office in Dhaka.

Cox’s Bazar is beautifully located next to the sea and luckily we found some time to a walk along the beach. On the longest beach in the world, as the Bangladeshi claim it to be.

Photo: Chantal Ruetsche

On our walk we heard someone calling out to us; “Hey, sisters and brothers” and towards us came a group of children from Mukti, the school we visited the day before. The kids had been to school in the morning and were now selling different handmade jewellery like earrings and necklaces. Other kids were dancing or singing for the tourists.

Photo: Chantal Ruetsche

They joined us on our walk and we were laughing together, they explained us about low and high tide and taught us how to find the starfishes hiding in the sand. One of children spoke very good English and we suggested him to share his knowledge and teach the other kids English too. The sun was shining and since we were walking on the longest beach in the world, the walk lasted for a while and the kids joined us all the time. Probably due to off season for the tourism and lack of buyers for the jewellery  After a few hours, we got back towards the hotel, the sun set and we said good bye to kids.

Photo: Chantal Ruetsche

This morning we took some Rickshaws to go to the Rakhaing school at the Buddhist Temple Road here in Cox’s Bazar. We visited a pre-primary school class of Shishur Khamatayan, a mother tongue based multi-lingual education project.

Bangladesh is home to various ethnic minority groups like for example the Rakhaing. The Rakhaing are closely related to the people of Myanmar. Contrary to most Bangladeshis who are Muslim, the Rakhaing are Buddhists and speak a completely different language. You can imagine that for Rakhaing children it is not easy to go to school where all classes are taught in Bangla (of which they don’t understand a single word and where the activities do not relate to their culture or communities). Therefore over 55.5% of ethnic children in Bangladesh between the age of six and ten do not go to school and if they do, drop out before completing primary school.

With Shapna (Save the Children Bangladesh) and Heleen in the rickshaw

This school is set up by Save the Children, together with the Rakhaing Development Foundation. It prepares the smallest children for primary school, teaching them in Rakhaing. Although young children learn quite fast, it is important that they first develop their mother tongue language skills before learning a second language. It creates better thinking and learning skills and gives the children a strong foundation for future education.

In the second year of pre-primary school children are gradually introduced to the Bangla language and will have classes in both Rakhaing and Bangla until grade 3. The great thing is that children who have completed this multi-lingual education program are among the best students of their class in the regular national schools which they will attend from grade 4.

What’s the name of this animal and what sound does it make (photo Claudia van Harten)

The first thing I notice when we enter the classroom is that it feels like a warm bath. And I don’t mean that I put on too many clothes today, the atmosphere here is just very friendly, informal and welcoming. All around the classroom you see drawings and other things that the children made. There is a lot of interaction between the teacher and children, and they don’t hesitate for a second when she asks them what a horse does.

The school day ends with activities in the play corners (photo Claudia van Harten)

Looking around this classroom, where the kids are having so much fun, I wish that all children of Ethnic minority groups in Bangladesh would have the opportunity to go to a school like this. Another good reason to sell as many Soft Toys as we can during the Soft Toys for Education Campaign. And when I buy mine, I will definitely think about this nice little school at the Buddhist Temple Road.

The annual Soft Toy for Education campaign at IKEA makes a huge difference to children in many parts of the world. Bangladesh is one of many countries where children get a better life due to education provided by Save the Children, and already after a few days in Bangladesh, we have met many many children proving this.

Our Thursday in Cox’s Bazar started with a ride in a baby taxi, as yellow as the sun shining from a blue sky. The streets were free from any other motorized vehicles due to a countrywide strike and we got a picture of what Cox’s Bazar could have been like some decades ago.

On a baby taxi through Cox’s Bazar this morning (Theres Wirell)

On our agenda for today was a visit of a school class who had invited us to a cultural program. The taxi dropped us close by and we walked the last hundred meters. We met curious people along the way and I can tell you that we were as curious about them as they were about us. The school we arrived at consisted of one single room for about 25 children with walls covered by posters with English vocabulary and all other kinds of useful information for children in their first years at school.

School performance for the visitors from Switzerland and the Netherlands (photo Theres Wirell)

The cultural program started and proud and happy kids were singing and dancing for us, they asked us about our home counties and we told them about a country far away called Switzerland, with snow, high mountains and many many cows.

Children at school (photo Theres Wirell)

The children in this class visit school three hours per day and when we asked them if they like going to school, there was no doubt about their opinion. The answer was a clear and loud YES. The school we visited is part of a bigger education project called Shikhon run by Save the Children, supporting 5000 schools like this one, all over Bangladesh. With this kind of project, the children have the chance to receive education and a thereby later on, the possibility for a higher education, a higher life standard and a better life.

Other curious children from the neighbourhood showed up for the show too, impressed by the dance and song.

What we saw today is one of many projects showing how education can be a first and extremely important step to a better future for the most important people in the world – our children.

This morning flower petals floated through the air as we were overwhelmed by the colorful and joyful welcome the children, teachers and staff at the Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation (BPF) gave us. The children, who wore beautiful traditional clothing, were singing to us as we arrived.

Beautiful girl in traditional clothing at BPF (photo: Heleen Vink)

After a great morning at BPF, we travelled to Cox’s Bazar by small airplane. Cox’s Bazar is one of the national prides with, according to the Bangladeshis, “the longest beach in the world” (a 120km-long sandy beach). As soon as we made our way out of the plane, we could tell we had made it to the shore with the smells of fresh fish and beach around us and a big blue sky and lots of sun.

After a local lunch where we all tried our Bangladeshi eating skills (without cutlery but with our right-hand fingers), we made our way to one of the two learning centers in this area run by Mukti, one of Save the Children’s local partners. With the assistance of Save the Children, Mukti has been implementing education programs for working children in the Cox’s Bazar area since July 2009.

Almost 1,000 children work in the beach area selling drinking water, jewelry made from shells and other items to support their families financially. To make sure these children can also go to school and have better opportunities in life, Mukti has provided 200 children with a non-formal education, including subjects like Bengali, English, mathematics and social studies. When we visited a classroom, the children read us a short rhyme in English but confessed their favorite subject was Bengali. They taught us how to say “How are you?” – read phonetically as “Kq-mohn aach’en”.

Singing children in MUKTI classroom (photo: Sabine Wagner)

With the local and international tourism industry rising in Cox’s Bazar and a resulting demand for hotel employees, Mukti wanted to make sure that children had an education as well as the skills they need to find better opportunities and safe employment. Mukti has started vocational training in housekeeping management for the older teenagers (15 – 18 years). The training is given by a volunteer professional from the hotel & hospitality industry and, after four months of theoretical studies, the students have internships at local hotels. In November 2012 the first 20 students graduated after a six-month course. Fifteen graduates have already been placed in jobs at local hotels. A great initiative to combine local challenges and opportunities!

The song that seems to pop up everywhere we visit is a song adapted by several civil rights movements around the world called “We Shall Overcome”. The children know it by heart in Bengali. A selection of the lyrics in English:

Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
That we shall overcome someday

We’ll walk hand in hand
We shall all be free
We are not afraid

We are not alone

The whole wide world around
We shall overcome some day

During the evening, we got a taste of the traditional song and dance from the Rakhaine community at the Rakhaine Development Foundation (RDF) cultural evening. Today we found out that tomorrow there will be planned transport strikes across the nation. Should one be driving during these strikes this could jeopardize your safety. Therefore, we had to alter our plans and instead of visiting a RDF project in the countryside, we will visit a project in town. We will have to see how the situation develops during the day and we will keep you posted…

After yet another night with very little sleep for most of us, we were to be checked out and picked up from the hotel at 8am. Of course, I accidentally hit snooze and slept until 7:20, so my breakfast was small and quick.

At about 8:15am, we were all in three cars and driving towards Mirpur in Dhaka, to visit the Bangladesh Protobondhi Foundation, though we had no idea what it was.

After squeezing through some tight and busy streets, we made it to the right place, where so many children dressed in bright colours were waiting patiently for us. We were showered with orange flower petals and beautiful, bright smiles as we entered the building, to discover it was a foundation, or school, for developmentally disabled children. It was incredible! We were shown through the many rooms, catering for the many children there with various disabilities.

Due to time restrictions, it was all a bit rushed as they wanted us to see the whole five-storey building. In one of the rooms, a young girl asked for the flowers that one of our team had received. Willingly our teammate handed the bunch over. This was followed by a couple more requests, until the original girl started telling each of our team that other members of her class didn’t have flowers. We left this room having made the children smile by giving them the flowers that they had originally given us—it was fantastic!

The girl that took leadership in distributing our flowers (photo: Heleen Vink)

We were ushered to the top floor of the building where a dance presentation from the various classes had been prepared for us, with a sign behind them shining “Welcome IKEA Foundation”. It was amazing to see all that these children had devoted to this short visit! We were truly touched! Seeing how they smile regardless of the situation they are in, in the environment they are in, it is clear- this centre truly is changing the worlds of these children. On top of this, we could also be proud, as IKEA’s Soft Toys for Education campaign is playing a direct part in this!

Young boy painting using his mouth, as he doesn't have control of his hands (photo: Heleen Vink)

We were then given beautiful gifts that the children had made themselves, and due to time restraints, a quick presentation about all that the foundation does. Rushing down the stairs, as a power outage refused us the use of the lift, we stopped at their little shop to make a few purchases of things the kids had made themselves, which would also directly support what the foundation does.

Rushing to the small domestic airport to catch our flight to Cox’s Bazar (a smaller city in the south-eastern part of Bangladesh) proved easier than we thought, even though we still only arrived 50 minutes before take-off. A very eye-opening airport and flying experience, which began our afternoon into the south of the country, before we were off to visit another school and training centre for children and teenagers—specifically focused on those who work on the beaches selling products to tourists.

A few taxis, lots of rickshaws and buses, horns from everywhere – we were stuck in the traffic of Dhaka which took quite some time. This time we took to observe the surroundings, the people passing by and working on the street. We felt quite safe catching a first glance of Dhaka while sitting in our car. At that time we could not imagine how the people live in the nearby slums. Before we could really think about it we were already in the middle of the slum of Mohammadpur. We walked through narrow streets (without Atik and Masum from Save the Children Bangladesh we wouldn’t find our way out again of that Labyrinth) where families live on a very limited space (5 to 6 persons in one room which is about 6 m2). Even if those people live in extreme poverty they have a positive charisma and we were really touched how they looked and smiled at us with their expressive eyes. We were also impressed how the people, especially the women, were dressed with their colourful traditional clothes.

Narrow streets in the slums of Mohammadpur (picture: Theres Wirell)

Lots of the children we saw in Mohammadpur have to work to support their families. In Bangladesh working children are common. 95 % of the working children work in the informal sector. To help those children create a better life and better opportunities for the future Save the Children and its local partners UCEP (Underprivileged Children`s Educational Program) and CDP (Community Participation and Development) run several educational programs and vocational trainings.

We visited one educational program where we had the chance to talk to the participating children. When we have asked them how do they feel about being able to attend the school, they all answered together: “VALO” (what means good in Bengali). It made us happy to see how they appreciate being part of the educational program and being taught subjects like Bengali, English, Mathematics, Science and Religion.

When talking to the children, the teacher and also the parents, we found out that the biggest issue is to convince the parents themselves and also the employer of the children to send the children to school. Therefore the set up of the program is that the children only go to school for three hours per day and thus have the opportunity to follow their work in the afternoon and therefore be able to earn the necessary money for their families to survive.

Children in the school (picture: Theres Wirell)

Beside the school we also visited a few vocational training centers where the children can develop skills for further jobs. We met a few graduates who have now a proper job in the formal sector. They profit a lot from the program; they now earn 450% more than they did before they were involved in the program.

We were amazed by the matured and humble children. Even if they have to give 95% of their salary to their parents, they are proud of contributing to their families’ income.

Vocational training center (picture: Theres Wirell)

Overall, this first day was very exiting and educative for us. We were positively surprised how thought through the projects of Save the Children and its parters are. It made us happy to see that everyone was smiling at us and proudly showed us what they do and work on. We were impresses how those people organise their lives on such a small space and how they mange to their circumstances.