Bangladesh
Words: Hannah Watson Photos: Hannah Watson and Melanie Webb
The long road
to Dhaka
How do you make a difference in a country routinely devastated by natural disasters, with one of the world’s fastest growing economies, refugee crises and population sizes? For BMS World Mission teacher, Louise Proctor, you start with the nation’s three-year-olds. A pen without ink “Do you have slums in the UK?” James, our driver and translator, asks. I’m on the road with Louise Proctor, BMS World Mission’s Educational Consultant in Bangladesh, and James is driving us to school – to a BMSsupported preschool in Indurkani, to be exact. We’re here to see the difference BMS supporters are making in the lives of Bangladeshi families by making education possible for their children. Curiosity has been the theme of our long car ride out of Dhaka, and the questions from all sides have flowed thick and fast. There have been questions about culture, family, religion, and language. About
schooling, and about what everyone’s favourite fruit is. The traffic thins out, and we speed past a flock of brightly coloured dented metal trucks, green vegetation, blue sky. And then the road runs out. We continue the journey to school on foot. Inside Indurkani preschool, it’s a humid 35 degrees, despite the puffball white clouds in the sky outside signalling that autumn is on its way. The preschool pupils, children aged between three and five and sublimely cute in their excitement, are gathered at the back of a room so dark your eyes take a moment to adjust. They’re thrilled to be at school, even though its corrugated iron roof traps the heat. Even though there’s no
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electricity, lighting or running water. And even though one of the little boys only owns one shirt and one pair of shorts. Louise worked in a village primary school in Scotland before she was called to join the preschool project with her husband Phil, a BMS engineer, over four years ago. Dreamed up and run by passionate Christians from the Social Health and Education board of the Bangladeshi Baptist Church Sangha, the project equips teachers to provide vital preschool education to poor, rural areas. 30 schools have been set up so far, and their progress is overseen by Louise. Indurkani is one of the newest
