In a tin-roofed classroom, 110 Children get a second chance at school

The classroom has no modern facilities. There are no elaborate teaching arrangements, and the building itself is little more than a makeshift hut in a neighbourhood of Habiganj

But every day, 110 children arrive carrying books and notebooks. Some once spent their days wandering the streets, hanging around bus terminals or looking for food. For many, school had seemed beyond reach. Now they have somewhere to go.

The school is called Amrao Manush Pathshala, which translates roughly as "We Are Human Too School." It stands in the Rajnagar neighbourhood and is run by Shah Md Mizanur Rahman Sohel, a 44-year-old former real estate businessman who began teaching disadvantaged children seven years ago.

The children pay nothing. Their books, notebooks, pens and daily meals are provided free of charge. Alongside reading and writing, they are taught discipline, personal responsibility and basic social values.

Mizanur considers them his own children.

"There are 110 children studying here. They are all my sons and daughters," he told Daily Waadaa, "My goal is to ensure that every underprivileged child and every street child receives at least a basic education."

He hopes some will eventually attend established schools and colleges, an ambition that would have seemed remote when he first found them on the streets.

Outside a restaurant…

Mizanur did not set out to become a teacher.

In 2019, he was making a living buying land and selling residential plots. His wife, Rozy Abedin, worked at a bank. They lived in Rajnagar, where he still resides with his family.

Then, one day, he witnessed an incident outside a restaurant.

Several impoverished people had approached the establishment asking for food. Instead of receiving anything, they were chased away.

“That scene troubled me. I began buying meals for people who could not afford them, sometimes inviting them to eat and sometimes distributing food himself,” he told Waadaa.

His efforts soon took him to bus terminals and railway stations, where he handed out packaged meals.

There, he noticed something else. Many children and adolescents spent much of their time around the stations, without regular schooling or adult supervision. Some, he said, were becoming involved with drugs.

Giving them food addressed one immediate problem. It did little to change what awaited them the next day. Mizanur began to think that education might offer something more lasting.

He started gathering children beneath a tree and teaching them basic lessons. There was no classroom, no permanent structure and little money for supplies.

The arrangement was informal. Children came to study under the open sky, and Mizanur taught them with whatever resources he could manage. Over time, the number of students grew.

Eventually, said Mizanur, “I built a small hut and moved the classes indoors.” And the makeshift structure became Amrao Manush Pathshala. Seven years after that first effort, the school has 110 students.

Mizanur told Waadaa that he has begun to see results. Several former students have found jobs in garment factories in the Olipur industrial area of Shayestaganj, an important manufacturing centre in Habiganj district.

For children who once faced an uncertain future, those jobs represent a measure of financial independence. But Mizanur wants the school to achieve more than preparing children for employment.

He hopes they will continue their education, enter established institutions and eventually find work that allows them to support themselves and their families.

"I hope that one day many of them will have the opportunity to study at reputable educational institutions," he said.

The cost of keeping a school open

Running a free school for 110 children requires more than a classroom.

Every student needs books, notebooks, pens and other supplies. There are daily meals to arrange and recurring expenses to cover. For an initiative dependent on limited resources, the costs are difficult to sustain.

Mizanur has managed to keep the school operating, but financing remains a persistent challenge. The building itself reflects those constraints.

It lacks the facilities normally associated with a formal educational institution. The children study in a modest structure that was never designed to accommodate a school of this size.

Mizanur wants to establish a permanent campus, with enough space and resources to accommodate more students. He has yet to secure the financial support necessary to do so.

“I have already appealed to businesspeople, expatriate Bangladeshis, philanthropists and community organisations for assistance,” he told Waadaa.

With additional funding, he believes the school could expand its enrollment and reach children who remain outside the formal education system. The challenge extends beyond his classroom.

Mizanur measures the value of his work in those individual changes. He believes that the circumstances into which a child is born should not determine whether that child receives an education.

For the 110 students at Amrao Manush Pathshala, that belief has taken the form of a small classroom in Rajnagar, where books and notebooks are provided without charge and lessons continue despite the shortage of resources.

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