Our Impact
Every child deserves an education.
We started with two locations that happened to be within our reach, a school and a children’s shelter. The school had received a donation of computers from another NGO, but no means to teach students how to use them. The shelter lacked resources to provide their children significant exposure to technology. As the local schools around the area do not have computer programs either, many children would not know how to use computers or the Internet until college, around age 18, if they are lucky.
These challenges are by no means unique. We are always on a mission to help other interested education or childcare centers, contact us to get started.
Bangladesh
Children’s Shelter in Savar
Background
We work with a children’s shelter in Savar, a village about 3km from Dhaka, that houses about 40-50 boys and girls at any given time, ages 3 to 18, who are orphans, abandoned, or have families who simply cannot provide for them. Sponsored by a Dutch NGO, the shelter is run by a compassionate local team, each with their own stories of overcoming adversity. All religions reside together in peace, and special care is taken to ensure gender equality among children and staff.
Beyond covering full board, school fees, medical needs, clothes, etc. the shelter is home and family to all who grow up there, providing lifelong guidance and support even in adulthood. With a mission to create long-standing impact in village communities, the shelter puts enormous focus on the well-rounded development of every child.
Needs
- Local schools do not provide any computer trainings for all 12 years of grade school
- Only 2 computers for 40-50 students, separated by gender
How We Help
In the short-term, we have trained the caretakers to teach some of our lessons.
However, to ensure a sustainable long-term program, we are working on:
- Online self-learning & practices
- Computer lab supplies
LEF for Life School
Background
Since 2018, we have tested various programs at LEF for Life, a K-12 school, first established in Dhaka city slums to provide access to education for the children. One of their earliest challenges was getting parents to send their children to school amidst financial hardships. The school provided lunch and bags of rice to take home to encourage parents to allow children to attend school. With these efforts, the school grew in size to 300+ students from ages 5 to 19.
During covid-19, LEF for Life relocated to Gazipur, the world capital of garment factories, transforming into a boarding school when daily transport was no longer possible during a pandemic.
As the school is free to students, grants from donors worldwide enable the school to continue its operations.
Needs
- Has a computer lab, but teachers have little or no experience and limited computer knowledge
- No lesson resources (curriculum, lesson plans, activity ideas, teaching materials)
How We Help
We train teachers and provide blended learning materials so any adult assigned to supervise lab hours can lead a fulfilling class for students.
The future
Meet Our Students
Meet Kakoli. When she first met us, she told us her goal was to be an engineer. However, without much opportunity to use computers fully, she knew that it would be a difficult career path to follow.
At age 16, she was one of Think Tool’s first students to test our programs, first not knowing how to organize files into folders to now adeptly switching between the latest software and even knowing how to code.
Her younger brothers and sister at ages 5, 8, 11 also enrolled in our early literacy program and delivered amazing, well-researched presentations to their big sister!
Since then, Kakoli is an active member of our Think Tools team, helping us improve our lessons through her own experiences and our local educators. Her goal to be an engineer is still very real, as she is applying to universities today.
Kakoli
Student, Bangladesh
