Representatives from the British International School Abu Dhabi (BISAD) travelled to the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh this week to visit The Choice to Change (C2C) charity schools.
BISAD’s marketing and admissions officer Richard Davies found out about the work of C2C from an article published in Abu Dhabi Week in November 2012.
“We read about the football tournament fundraiser and then met the C2C team. We felt that they were very well aligned to what we wanted to achieve through our school’s charitable board NordStar,” Davies said.
To date BISAD pupils, staff and parents have raised over AED 20,000 through a number of fundraisers including a car boot sale, a sponsored walk and cake sales. Parents donated children’s clothes and toys, which were taken to Dhaka this week by Davies and Alan McLaughlin from BISAD. The pair were accompanied by UAE-based C2C team – Mark Azzam, Marius Belciug and Eva Kernova.
“We were shocked by the living conditions and it was certainly a huge difference to the cleanliness and wealth of Abu Dhabi. However, despite their living conditions, it was amazing to see how welcoming and happy the children were,” Davies said.
“What the team has done is amazing, they truly are making a difference to the lives of 128 children by providing them with an education that they would otherwise not receive.
“The children were very motivated and learning life skills that will hopefully enable them to achieve things that they could only have dreamed of before such as a university education.”
BISAD plan to continue supporting C2C in the next academic year.
