2023 is off to a great start- thanks to you!

Hello Anwar,

The first month of 2023 is already past us! With your support, we dove into the new year with renewed gusto and vigor. The month of January was eventful with the completion of bathroom projects,a graduation ceremony of our Khulna Sewing Center students, distribution of books and more that you will learn about in this newsletter. Thank you for propelling OBAT to a great start in 2023!

OBAT Receives 2023 Seal of Transparency

Candid, formerly known as GuideStar, is the world’s largest information portal on nonprofits. The platinum seal awarded to OBAT by Candid denotes the highest level of transparency exhibited by a nonprofit registered in its database.OBAT recently renewed its due diligence with Candid and upgraded its seal to 2023. Click here to view OBAT's profile on Candid.

Two Bathrooms Increase Sanitation

Around 200 families reside in the SB Nagar School Camp. OBAT started working in this camp in the year 2008- its first project was the SB Nagar Primary School, followed by a water project and other infrastructure projects. Recently, OBAT renovated an old bathroom for women which had fallen into a state of disrepair and was unusable, making it very difficult for women to have access to such a facility. The new toilet has 7 stalls and tiled floors. In addition, a bathing facility was made for washing the deceased before burial as well as a bathroom for men and a water reservoir.

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13 Women Graduate from Sewing Center

OBAT’s sewing centers offer four month long courses in tailoring and dress making. These courses play a pivotal role in giving women an opportunity to earn a living and contribute to their family’s income. Once they graduate, they have the choice to either work for someone or start a home based business. The sewing center at Khulna celebrated the graduation of 13 students at a ceremony held at OBAT’s IT Center. Certificates of completion were presented to the students at the ceremony.

Visit of Esteemed Supporter Bolsters Morale

OBAT is resting on the shoulders of countless compassionate individuals like Mr. Eijaz Samad. His generosity has supported several projects and was instrumental in creating an endowment for OBAT to ensure its existence as a sustainable organization. Mr. Samad lives in Seattle and recently visited OBAT’s projects in Dhaka and Chittagong. His visit to the schools, water projects and sewing centers of OBAT brought much joy to the camp residents who got the opportunity for a one on one interaction with him. Mr. Samad also enjoyed speaking to the students and their parents and listened intently to the challenges that are faced by the camp dwellers. Do get in touch with us if you would like to visit the camps. We would love to coordinate a visit for you!

International Day of Education is Celebrated by Rohingya Children

The International Day of Education was celebrated worldwide on January 24th 2023. This year, the theme was “to invest in people, prioritize education." OBAT runs 13 Learning Centers for Rohingya refugee children and celebrated the day with them by hosting an art competition. Students enjoyed drawing their favorite things. The students who produced the top three art works were given prizes.

OBAT Students Ace the Math Olympiad

During the last week of January, Math Olympiad, a Math competition, was held throughout the country of Bangladesh. Out of the initial 6,000 participants, 600 moved into the second round. We are so proud to share that thirteen of these 600 students were from OBAT’s Schools! Thirty students will proceed to the last round out of the 600 successful candidates. Best of luck to all OBAT students! We know they will ace this round as well!

Scouts from OBAT Schools Attend Regional Event

Bangladesh Scouts hosted the 32nd Asia-Pacific and 11th National Scout Jamboree in January. Seventeen scouts from OBAT’s Chittagong and Rangpur Schools participated in scouting competitions and met with scouts from all over the country as well as other Asian countries. The event’s chief guest, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, presided over the closing ceremony of the nine day Jamboree.

Your Feedback is Important to Us!

As we think about the next phase of our organizational life-cycle, your feedback will enable us to improve as an organization. We are currently formulating a strategic plan that will take us to 2026 and your insight will help shape this plan.

Kindly take this short survey today. Your input is really invaluable to us and will ultimately help us better serve communities in need.

TAKE THE SURVEY

New Books Mean a lot of Excitement!

Earlier in January, new text books were distributed amongst OBAT’s school students. Later in the month, our preschoolers also received their new books for 2023. Thanks to the efforts of OBAT’s Think Tank in Rangpur, new books were distributed to 116 students studying in OBAT’s Preschools in Rangpur in a small ceremony.

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Climate Change to be Front and Center in Think Tank Initiatives

The youth in OBAT’s Think Tank are constantly engaged in creating awareness in their communities on pertinent topics that are deeply affecting or posing a threat to our environment. Climate change is a topic which is rightfully front and center on everyone’s agenda. The Khulna Think Tank is embarking on a series of awareness sessions on climate change, its effects and the ways to combat it at the individual level.

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