Next Steps

Let there be light - Agami's initiative to distribute solar lanterns amongst the poor students.


Agami is proudly introducing the solar light project for the students in all Agami’s school projects in Bangladesh.  The organization has partnered with One Million Lights (www.onemillionlights.org ) in implementing this rather ambitious project in Bangladesh.  This project has been called ‘Let There Be Light’ in the spirit of the famous unfinished movie of the same name by the film maker Zahir Raihan who was killed during the 1971 liberation war.

65% of Bangladesh’s population does not have access to modern power supply and, thus, their entire livelihood at night is still dependent upon  old fashion Kupees or lanterns,  using environmentally unfriendly energy sources such as kerosene.  Although solar photovoltaic-based rural household power generation is getting significant attention in Bangladesh, most of the rural population cannot even afford the low-end integrated solar home system. This is where Agami comes in.

Agami has received 100 solar lights from One Million Lights as part of the Pilot Phase of their program.  Each of the solar light costs US$25 and has an estimated lifetime of 2 years containing its own batteries for energy storage of sunlight exposure during the day time.  After 7 hours of daytime sunlight exposure, each of the solar light is expected to last for 3-4 hours at night time use with option of different brightness levels.  Each solar light is good for 3-4 students studying together using a reading table where the light is hung from the top.

Agami believes in empowering the underprivileged children in rural and urban areas so that they can improve their lives as well as enhance their pursuit of education curricula.  In the next phase, Agami plans to provide solar light to all of the ~2300 Agami students in 10 different Agami school projects in different geographical locations in Bangladesh.  Some schools are in remote local settings and some are in slums of metropolis Dhaka city.  We would love to hear your feedback and reactions to this ambitious project in empowering the livelihoods of the underprivileged children through empowering with modern but cost-effective solar power technology.  One baby step at a time!

Agami also requests your generous donations for this ambitious empowering project – Let There Be Light!  I hope you will open your heart and wallet for this noble cause.  We will need thousands of dollars in implementing this project in next few years.

I wish you a Happy Holiday Season and Happy New year.
 

Sabir Majumder

Secretary, Agami 

Agami Project Review Meeting

  Agami’s project review meeting was held on November 14, 2009 in the community room of the Evergreen Public Library in San Jose. With the recent growth in number and scope of projects, Agami management wanted to include the community, donors and sympathizers in the meeting to increase the organization’s accountability and transparency. As such, the four-hour session was attended by Agami’s Board of Directors, project coordinators, volunteers and a few key donors. 

Agami is currently running nine projects in various schools across Bangladesh: Project Khulna (three schools in the villages of Patharkhali, Bedkashi and Amadi), Alok Shishu Shikhalay (a slum school in Agargaon, Dhaka), Pearabagh School (a slum school in Moghbazar, Dhaka), Lalitnagar High School (Lalitnagar, Rajshahi), GonoUdyog Girls High School (Laksham, Comilla), Madaripur High School (Madaripur), and Doshgram High School (Doshgram, Sylhet). Two new projects have been approved for the upcoming year: Sajek School (Sajek, Rangamati) and Mirpur Slum School (Mirpur, Dhaka).  

The project coordinators presented a thorough review of their projects, including a brief background, its current status in 2009 and the future needs and challenges. The presentations were each followed by a Q&A session, as well as discussion and feedback from the audience. The new projects were also briefly introduced. Sheila, Zakia, Tanjeem, Matin and Raj have a done great job in representing their projects at the meeting.

Besides running projects at various schools, this year Agami has taken a few initiatives which will have impact across schools and projects. Two such initiatives were also discussed and reviewed in this meeting: the Million Light Initiative and the Student Internship Program (see articles on these initiatives in this Newsletter).

There were open exchanges of ideas and information on computer curriculum at various schools, measuring success of Agami projects, location and nature of future projects. Agami intends to incorporate these ideas into operational plans for 2010, and is eagerly looking forward to another successful year

Mahmudul Hassan

Vice President

Agami