To provide lasting help – the kind that will help cure hunger and prevent the cycle of poverty from proliferating – was the goal of the two American women who founded the Light of Hope Learning Center in Bangladesh…
Inside the Light of Hope Learning Center, young women are a world away from the suffering of a life on the streets – the kind of life many of their family members have experienced. Instead of spending each day as a beggar or a prostitute like some of their parents, they have access to a healthy breakfast, showers, clean clothes, and an education in Bangla, English, math, spelling, and science.
Najia is one of these young women, and she knows how the Light of Hope Learning Center has enriched her life and she is grateful.
Najia and her younger sister carry great responsibility in their family. Najia’s father comes and goes, taking money from the family but never contributing any. Their mother doesn’t work and their older sister is ill. Najia and Amila are expected to bring home money, however they can get it. This seems like a hopeless situation, but the Light of Hope believes a different story is possible for Najia. Light of Hope not only provides them with skills, but with an opportunity to work in a safe environment, instead of working in a sewing factory. “Before there were a lot of problems in my family. There was no money for food,” Najia said. “Now I have a job, and I am able to help my family. I am the main breadwinner in my family.”
Najia works as a Bangla tutor and hopes to become a translator. Her sister Amila has studied under a housekeeper, has learned to make jewelry, and currently attends a sewing class. Najia’s best friend, Lili, works as a nanny in an American family’s home. “For my family, they have given me a job, and my family is able to be helped by giving [them] food or medicine,” Lili said. Lili’s relationship with that family made an eternal difference in the path of her life.
From these testimonies, we would say that the efforts of Light of Hope are indeed a work of great worth.
