School Building Programme
Panikhali School
The first community where we began working with PRDS was in Panikhali village. The building there was basic and comprised of a single large room with a mud floor and the building made from bamboo, fence walls and a straw roof. The building served us well initially but as time went on and student numbers increased, we knew we needed to construct a new building to accommodate the large number of students. Construction of the new building began in late 2019 and continued at a great pace over the following months, the lower level was complete by early 2020 and the upper level then completed by June 2020. The building has five classrooms, library, kitchen, computer room, office, student toilets and a community meeting room. On an average day, 300 students will pass through the doors if our new building in Panikhali.
Alor Disha
In the summer of 2017, we visited the community of Charadakatia located 15km from Panikhali Centre. Local stakeholders requested we begin an education programme to support the young people in the community. With PRDS we decided to begin a programme here in a building that had recently been vacated by another NGO. We carried out initial renovations to the building to bring it up to standard. With only two classrooms in the building and increasing student numbers we knew we would need to increase our capacity here. Beginning in 2019 we began to expand Alor Disha Centre in different stages by adding extra classrooms to the centre. The centre now comprises of five classrooms, tailoring training room, computer training room, office, kitchen, library and community meeting room.
Boria School
We have been working with PRDS in Boria Village since the summer of 2017. When we started classes in Boria we had been very fortunate to have the use of two churches to conduct classes. With the increasing number of students, we put plans together with PRDS to construct our own centre to cater for the growing numbers. We assisted PRDS in purchasing a plot of land in the village and then to construct a new school building. The building became operational in 2021 and has four classrooms, tailoring training room, office, kitchen, student toilets and a community meeting room.
Skills Training, Empowerment and Medical Centre
As our programme has grown with PRDS and the numbers of students in our centres increased since we began working together in 2017, we have been able to identify areas of need for the local communities. Two areas we identified have been in providing skills to empower young people and local women as well as a medical check-up facility for the local community. In the village of Panikhali we supported PRDS in the construction a new centre to train young people and women in acquiring a skill to help them generate an income and support their families. The building also has a dedicated medical room where nurses and doctors will visit to provide check-ups and consultations to our students and the local community free of charge.