Odommo fun school for street kids

Ananta Yusuf

Arif Arian had a dream that sets him apart from most other youths. He wanted to build a school where street children would learn while having fun.
Then instead of asking money from a sponsor, Arif turned to his facebook friends. He wrote on his facebook page: What if we opened a school for street children?
Amazingly he got so much of heart warming responses from friends and their friends who wanted to volunteer for the cause that it took almost no time for him to kickstart his dream project: Mojar School.
January 10, 2013. That was when Arif and his buddies’ open air school in Suhrawardy Udyan had its first class with just 13 street children.
While sharing his experience with The Daily Star Arif says, "At first we planned to have fun interaction with children and teach them depending on how much they are interested to learn."

On the first day of their pilot project of Mojar School they found that the children are thirsty to learn. And children's keen interest helps Mojar School to grow and expand all over the city. 
The Mojar School, one of the many projects of a registered organisation Odommo Bangladesh Foundation, is a non-profit organisation. Every day, in four different schools two hundred children study, eat and interact on a regular basis.
Now the organisation is dreaming to build a shelter home for one thousand street children. He adds, "People thought we were crazy. It became necessary for us to do it prove that we can do it. Some were doubtful whether we will continue with this mission. But we are here to stay."
In the last couple of years, their single school has expanded to four where 200 under privileged children study. They have also created a 600-volunteers network. With the support and help of these volunteers, they are touching the lives of 2000 children outside these schools. And this number is growing.
Each volunteer donates Tk 50 or more to run the schools and feed the children. In return, they have been enriched with many great experiences.
Wasifa Zannat, a coordinator of Mojar School, says, "The idea of teaching street children sitting amid dusty roads was not appealing. But when you interact closely, you will see that they are not dirty beggars. It is fun to work with them."
Now they believe their work will help the country to build an enlightened generation.

South Africa postpone women's tour of Bangladesh again

South Africa women's tour of Bangladesh

Haroon Lorgat - "This is most unfortunate as a number of our players are unavailable to tour because of personal security concerns, work or the end of year study and exams at this time of year" Photo: AFP

ESPNcricinfo

South Africa women's tour of Bangladesh has been thrown into uncertainty again, with South Africa Cricket Board (CSA) postponing the series over "personal security concerns".
South Africa women were initially supposed to arrive in Dhaka on October 15 to play three ODIs and five T20Is, but the tour was temporarily postponed due to the CSA's security fears following Australia's postponement of their men's team tour to Bangladesh for the same reasons.
As per the new schedule, South Africa women were supposed to play three ODIs on November 6, 8 and 10, and four T20s on November 12, 13, 15 and 16. However, the team did not land in Dhaka on November 3, as was previously announced by both the BCB and the CSA.
A CSA release said the postponement was necessary as "South Africa will not be able to field a full squad".
"This is most unfortunate as a number of our players are unavailable to tour because of personal security concerns, work or the end of year study and exams at this time of year," the CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat said.
With Zimbabwe women also scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh later this month, the BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that the two boards were working on confirming the final fixtures.
"We are expecting them [CSA] to give us the new dates over the next four-five days," Chowdhury told ESPNcricinfo. "This is an issue for the CSA. Teams like Zimbabwe and the Australian football team are coming to Bangladesh this month. It shows that the security situation is good in Bangladesh."
Earlier, South Africa's women's cricket team delayed its tour to Bangladesh while Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) made the announcement just a day before the visitors were scheduled to arrive in Dhaka to play three one-day internationals and four Twenty20 Internationals.
"South African cricket authorities told us that their women's team cannot come on Tuesday," BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury told AFP.
"They cited logistic problems. We hope the problems will be solved soon and they'll announce a fresh date of arrival," he said.
Nizamuddin further said that the formation of a new itinerary would force the board to shorten the number of matches against South Africa since the Zimbabwe women's cricket team is scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh in mid-November.
According to AFP there were no comments from South Africa cricket chiefs or the government.
South African women's team was originally scheduled to visit in October but the tour was postponed following Cricket Australia's decision to postpone its men's tour due to security concerns.

Watch: Paris street temporarily 'renamed' after blogger Avijit

The street name in front of Bangladesh Embassy in Paris is temporary labelled after slain Bangladeshi-American secular activist and blogger Avijit Roy by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on November 2. Photo: YouTube

Star Online Report

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has temporarily labelled the street name in front of Bangladesh Embassy in Paris after slain Bangladeshi-American secular activist and blogger Avijit Roy marking the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.
The organisation also labelled 11 other Parisian streets after journalists who have been murdered, tortured or disappeared all over the world and the culprits responsible remained unpunished, RSF said in a report on its website.

“The embassy addresses have been changed to draw attention to the failure of these countries to take action and to remind them of their obligation to do whatever is needed to bring those responsible for these crimes to justice,” it said.
Threatened with death multiple times before, writer Avijit Roy was brutally hacked dead at Dhaka University premises on the night of February 26, days after he came back to the country.

Avijit Roy and his wife Rafida Ahmed Banya. Photo taken from Facebook

He and his wife Rafida Ahmed Banya were hacked with machetes near TSC after they got out from Amar Ekushey Book Fair allegedly under the nose of law enforcers. Banya survived the attack.

Reporters Without Borders Secretary General Christophe Deloire

“The cases of impunity that we are presenting are terrible symbols of passivity or deliberate inaction on the part of certain governments,” Reporters Without Borders Secretary General Christophe Deloire said.
“This International Day is an occasion for paying homage to the victims and for reminding governments of their obligation to protect journalists and to combat impunity. Those who target journalists will one day be held to account for their actions.”

The United Nations General Assembly created International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists and decided that it should me marked on the anniversary of their deaths.

An activist on November 2 of RSF pastes a label renaming a Paris street after a journalist 

who was victims of unpunished crime. Photo: YouTube

Whether they were executed, gunned down, died under torture or disappeared, these journalists paid the price for their commitment to freedom of information. Some of these cases have become symbolic. Others are less well known. In the past ten years, nearly 800 journalists have been killed in connection with their work. A total of 48 have been killed since the start of 2015.
In order to combat impunity, Reporters Without Borders is calling for the appointment of a special representative to the UN secretary-general on the safety of journalists.

RSF is using these 12 emblematic cases to highlight the fact that crimes of violence against journalists usually go unpunished because official investigations are inadequate or non-existent and because governments are apathetic. More than 90 percent of crimes against journalist are never solved.
RSF c

alls on the public to support the #FightImpunity campaign by visiting the http://fightimpunity.org website. It provides details about unpunished crimes against such journalists as Avijit, Lebanon’s Samir Kassir, France’s Guy-André Kieffer and Mexico’s María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe. It also allows visitors to take action by sending a personal email or tweet directly to the head of state or government of the country concerned.