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Webmaker:
Denis Wright |
Mobile Medical Clinics and
Orphanage School, CHT, Bangladesh
Chittagong Hill Tracts, Google Maps
Please click for a map of Bangladesh
Please click for a map of Asia
In
2005, BODHI began to support a school for Chakmas, a tribal people
living in the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh
who were displaced from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the
1960s. Their original homeland is in the Chittagong Hill Tracts
(CHT), in southern Bangladesh. There the Chakmas, together with
other tribal peoples (collectively known as Jummas) face continual
repression and land-grabbing by the far more populous Muslim Bengalis.
The intrusions
of new settlers are supported by the Bangladeshi police and army,
who persistently ignore the human rights abuses.
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PBM
Medical Centre
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BODHI
supports the work of Parbatya Bouddha Mission (PBM) in the CHT.
Founded in 1983, PBM is led by Ven. Sumanalankar, whom Colin met
in Nagpur, India in late 2005. Ven. Sumanalankar is assisted by
a group of socially engaged monks and lay people, including social
workers, day labourers, educators and philanthropists.
PBM provides an orphanage, health center, school and vocational
training (weaving, sewing and carpentry), as well as a place for
moral education and meditation.
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PBM
Students
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PBM
cares for 209 children from various ethnic minority communities
in the CHT. Some do not have parents or are too poor to afford
schooling. Students stay at PBM and attend classes at the residential
school inside the PBM complex, where they receive free accommodation,
food and healthcare services. ‘The residential school also
provides free educational facilities to local village students,’ Ven. Sumanalankar writes.
BODHI supporters Padma and Swapna Chakma, who live in Canberra,
Australia, visited PBM in December 2005. Padma writes: ‘PBM
is really a valuable project for our Jumma people. Hundreds of
orphans are getting shelter and an education. It is the best humanitarian
project I have seen. I highly recommend this organization, which
has a very good reputation, skills and integrity.’
BODHI’s donations are used for school
supplies, medical care for residential students and eight free
medical camps in remote areas of the CHT. |
PBM
Doctor and Patient
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