Following is a post by Baby Aziz Ahmed – a Friend of Adhunika NY since 2008

I joined Adhunika Foundation in New York little over two years back. I was involved in few fund raising events, closely worked with the volunteers – the Friends of Adhunika to make every event success to support work of Adhunika Bangladesh Society (ABS). I heard about ABS, their work and achievements in last two years, and always was interested to meet the students in person where they take computer class and wanted to hear their stories and interests. I was lucky enough to visit Bangladesh this year for two weeks, and on Friday morning 29th October 2010 I went to meet the students. I was surprisingly welcomed with lot of excitements.

ABS is situated on 5th floor and since it was Friday, elevator was not running, Shahinoor- the office assistant  was smart enough to manage the elevator work by talking to the building super and I was quiet happy and frankly speaking felt very important and finally reached to office. I met few key people who help ABS run.
There were about 20 students, few of them were graduates of the course, and still came to see me. I spoke to them openly, we had a question and answer session. Interestingly they all had similar answers to my questions. They all want to grow professionally in future, work and help parents, their husband,   and financially help run the family. They want to see ABS’s computer course enhance where they can learn browsing internet, create accounts on facebook, upload pictures, etc. When I asked them what is the first thing they want to see improve. They all said – integrated power system ( IPS) which helps running computer when electricity not there. Then they started going on how they face this problem daily basis and how important this is for their class.

I was thinking we just purchased 5 brand new computers from 2010 fund raising events. How can we buy  IPS now? All the students were very happy to have new computers. They asked me to convey a big “Thank You” to all the people who made this possible. In Dhaka, pretty much electricity goes off daily basis. Most of the times, girls can’t even finish their class due to this. They wait for electricity to come back. Most of the time 2 hour class becomes 4 hours class. Month and half course becomes three month course.

I started feeling so bad and realized that these students still come from different places, squeeze time from their daily life, not to mention the traffic, yet they are interested to learn and grow in future. I couldn’t help myself and promised them on the spot that we will buy IPS as soon as possible and make this one request fulfilled.

After my visit I only thought, “I always hear $10 makes a difference, $10 can make a difference”, and it is so true, “$10 does make a big difference”. It touched my heart, I am glad I made this trip and if you visit and hear their story, talk to them and see how much they are interested to grow, will also touch your heart. That’s a Promise!!!

~
Baby Aziz Ahmed
Friend of Adhunika, NY since 2008