As I promised, by the grace of Almighty God, yesterday by repaying a loan of 80 thousand taka of Shorna apa, I was able to help her get out of her debt.
As you all know, I already bought a cow and a calf for her. The Cow gives 4 liters of milk a day and by selling them, she can earn about 300 taka per day. Keeping milk for her family, she can earn almost Taka 9000 per month. Alhamdulillah, with this money they are living a prosperous life as they wished for. In total the cow and calf cost almost 1,000 USD.
I have also decided to bear the cost of her husband’s treatments. I will also share a short video of Shorna Apa with you all soon.
Thank you so much my friends for always appreciating my journey. Nothing would have been this easier for me without your support and inspirations. Sending my heartfelt gratitude.
Please keep me in your prayers so that I may continue my mission to change the lives of people in need. To me, even one single difference counts.
_GMB Akash
GMB Akash
Photojournalist and Profile Photographer at Panos Pictures, London
Founder of GMB Akash Institute of Photography, Dhaka
All my 30 students have been promoted to their new classes and they have received their new books. With excitement and happiness they all were shining like stars. It’s a great pleasure for me to share these radiant faces with my friends. Without you, nothing was possible. All these children send their love and gratitude to all of you.
As you all know, in 2020 I took the responsibility for their complete education for my entire life. For that, I am regularly visiting their homes and family to assess their situations. The years are passing for them in the blink of an eye!
I started with 10 children and now it’s 30 children.
Hopefully, in comeing years I will be able to admit and shift more child laborers from their workplace to school.
For more than 15 years, I have been working on the child labor situation in Bangladesh. From the beginning of my photography career, I wanted to change the situation and raise awareness of this issue. However, I was not at all happy seeing these changes happening so very slowly in our society! Therefore, I decided to change peoples’ lives directly and I started with those people who I had photographed and those with whom I was already working.
I started giving training and helped set up businesses for people in need; especially the parents of child laborers. With these businesses I arranged for each of the families, they could earn more money and send their children to school instead of factories.
To get working children to school, I had to go door to door many times requesting that their parents send them to school. Finally, I have been able to convince some of the parents about the importance of education.
I motivated them to send their children to school. It was not at all easy. For that, I had to take full financial responsibility for these kids with expenses such as their admission fees, tuition fees, daily food, books, clothes and also to financially compensate their parents for the entire amount of money they would have earned each month if they had worked instead of going to school. I will also have to bear all the children’s expenses to ensure that they will continue to go to school!
Like these 30 children, more than four million children are struggling in our country. Maybe it is difficult, but it is not impossible to give hope to these 4 million children. If only every capable person would give a hand for one child, miracles would happen which could transform our society into a better-educated population who could better contribute to the development of our country, a benefit for all of us.
Sending my respect and prayers.
Love and light!
_GMB Akash
GMB Akash
Photojournalist and Profile Photographer at Panos Pictures, London
Founder of GMB Akash Institute of Photography, Dhaka
This month I have started gifting ‘Hygiene Bags’ among unprivileged teenage girls who are really in need but who can’t afford it.
We have distributed 200 hygiene bags to 200 girls just in the last 2 weeks. I have been doing this action for some time now and these 200 girls will receive this ‘Hygiene Bag’ every year until they have completed their education and they have started earning enough for themselves to afford buying their own hygiene products. I do this so that these 200 girls will find some relief during their monthly hardships and be able to concentrate on their studies and move towards a healthy future.
A ‘Hygiene Bag’ is not just a gift bag, it represents happiness for a sister. It facilitates the journey towards a healthy future for a girl but mostly, it gives relief from the physical and mental suffering at that time of the month.
Every bag consists of 15 packets of sanitary pads for one year, 6 inner garments, two towels, 24 bars of soap for washing and bathing as well as an informative letter from me.
Almost 80% of the women in Bangladesh do not use sanitary napkins mainly due to their high cost or simply due to their lack of awareness which leaves them susceptible to a myriad of health problems.
I personally visited and talked to the girls. Most of them mentioned that they cannot afford these products or their families simply don’t buy them for their girls. In many cases, they cannot even tell the family of their need because they are already in severe poverty.
Many thanks to my volunteer friends who were in the field these last two weeks beside me. They helped with the buying and transporting of the products to different parts of Bangladesh as well as distributing and giving counsel to the girls.
Please keep me in your prayers so I can always do my small part to serve the people in need till my last days.
You can also be a part of making some of them smile; you can also tell them they are loved; you can also give them some hope for a day or for a lifetime. If you want to contribute, please email me at akashphoto@gmail.com
Love and Light!
GMB Akash
Photojournalist and Profile Photographer at Panos Pictures, London
Founder of GMB Akash Institute of Photography, Dhaka
GMB AKASH 