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Just $240 a year can educate and put women in leadership roles in a desperately poor and culturally endangered region of the Himalayas. Please lend your support!
- Demonstrate solidarity with sisters faced by poverty and illiteracy.
- Provide health care, education, and cultural enrichment for hundreds of women in remote Himalayan villages.
- Help a young woman fulfill her spiritual and intellectual potential.
- Further intercultural understanding.
- Make someone very happy!
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Our Programs: Himalayas | Bangladesh | Scholarship Programs
Educating Girls in Bangladesh
Buddhism flourished in Bangladesh between the fourth and eleventh centuries, with thousands of monks resident in hundreds of monasteries throughout the land. Today Buddhists are less than one percent of a predominantly Muslim population. The Buddhist population is comprised of two groups: “plains” Buddhists, who are generally surnamed Barua, and “hilly” Buddhists, who belong to the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Tongchengya, and other tribal groups.
Girls in developing countries face many challenges in their pursuit of education. One of the greatest challenges for women is inadequate preparation at the primary level. The poor quality of schooling hampers girls in pursuing secondary and higher education. Another challenge is financial. Parents are unable to afford to buy uniforms and books to enable their children to attend school. If parents can only afford to send one child to school, they will usually send a son. Only recently are girls getting opportunities to study and many of them are only able to complete a few years of school.
Since 2001, Jamyang Foundation has founded three schools for Marma tribal girls in remote areas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. These schools were established in Buddhist tribal areas which are experiencing extreme economic hardship and are under threat of cultural extinction. The schools have greatly improved girls’ perceptions of what they can achieve educationally, socially, and spiritually.
The Jamyang Foundation schools are providing unprecedented opportunities to girls who would otherwise be deprived of an education in an area where girls and young women are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking. The schools have become very popular among the local people, because the teachers hold regular classes and show loving kindness for their students. The local villagers are now helping support the school. Everyone agrees that educating girls is the best way of protecting them against trafficking and other dangers.
Sanghamitta School
The first Jamyang Foundation project in Bangladesh was Sanghamitta School, founded in Bandarban District of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in 2001. The school provides primary school education for 136 Marma tribal girls who study in bamboo thatched classrooms. Currently, this school provides primary school education for 136 girls of the Marma and other communities who study Bangla, English, math, and their own languages and culture. Sanghamitta School already has students attending high school. This school is now running self-sufficiently – a goal of Jamyang Foundation.
Mahamaya School
In 2003, Mahamaya School began in a small village in Rajasthali with 17 students who were five and six years old. In 2005, the number of students increased to 35. In 2005, the number of students increased to 35. A new class has been added each year, as new students are admitted, . There are currently 85 students altogether.
Visakha School
Visakha School, established in 2006 by villagers in Manikchari, Khagrachari District, with the help of Jamyang Foundation, began with 38 students in two classes. In 2007, the number of students increased to 60. In 2008, a new class of 10 girls was admitted, bringing the total to 70. The children have blossomed with these new educational opportunities.
