Feature

She is Chand Sultana who realised that poor people do not want just simple education and literacy for the sake of education, rather they want education which empower them to make their own decision. With the same realisation, she developed non-formal education materials for commoners to make learning joyful and empowering. She developed education materials in forms of books, posters and stickers. Her materials helped poor people improve their quality of life through better knowledge about health, hygiene, family planning, environment conservation, formation of saving and credit groups and income generating vocational skills.

But her lifespan was too short as cancer took her life at the age of merely 46 years on April 22, 1999. Her demise was an irrepairable loss to the nation. Her absence will be felt for many more years to come. She wrote books in a simple but lucid language. Her developed materials are still in use in government and non-governmental organisations.

Because of her innovation, Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) is now far ahead of other organisations in spreading the light of education among the underprivileged. She developed 51 education materials on eradication of illiteracy, awareness on health, cancer, AIDS, women's legal rights, environmental and child rights issue in seven years.

Chand Sultana was born of a respectable family at Ganderia in the capital in 1953. She did her M.A. in Economics from Dhaka University in 1990. In her personal life, she was wife of DAM chief Kazi Rafiqul Alam.

In fond memory of the noble lady, DAM introduced 'Chand Sultana Literacy Prize' in 2001. The prize is open to any Bangladeshi individual or organisation who work in the fields of materials development, non-formal education, cancer awareness and HIV/AIDS prevention. This is the only national level prize in the fields in Bangladesh.

Every year, the prize is awarded to individuals/ organisations in recognition to their outstanding contribution in the respective fields. The prize consists of Tk 30,000, a crest and a citation.

This year, the prize was awarded to Parul Begum, a housewife at Barodolapara village of Taraganj upazila in Rangpur district on August 6. The prize was awarded to her in recognition to her success in bringing underprivileged children to school.

Parul who passed Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination, started a free school at her house for education of under-privileged children in 2001.She went from door to door to collect students. She taught them for free from 6 am to 8 am. Ultimately, children joined her school in large number. This way, Parul endeared herself among both children and guardians.

taka per kilo. After two years I have traveled the same distance by rickshaw and gave the rickshaw puller 6 taka.But now even the price of the lowest quality rice is 34 taka per kilo. A few days ago once after travel the same distance, I gave the rickshaw 6 taka.The rickshaw puller told me, "Sir , the 6 taka you gave me is all right but just answer me one thing how can I buy rice for my family."

Thus he urged us to help those who led miserable a life. I am a student. Once in an occasion, attending as a chief guest the senior professor of ME dept. and ex-vice chancellor of DUET, Dr. Naseen Ahmed addressed the students as, "In the Government University the Government bears about 70-80 % educational cost. You know that in our society most of the industrialists do not give their taxes. So you the students have to remember that a rickshawala or a driver by doing his job pays his taxes to the government and by their money you are studying in KUET." I think the students of our country should come forward to help these people in different ways. The students of 2005 batch of ME dept. created a fund for poor students whose family can't afford their educational cost. This is only one example of how we can help these unfortunate people.