Farzana's School Fund

Hi everyone!

I'm starting this campaign on behalf of my hero, my mother.

I'm extremely proud of her, because, despite a lifetime of challenges, she has planted the seeds of a dream she's had for a very long time: to build a school.

Let me tell you her story.

My mother, Farzana, grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she received her Bachelors of Education from Teacher's Training College of Dhaka in 1980. She taught for a few years before she immigrated to the United States in 1987. In 1996, she earned the opportunity to serve as a paraprofessional for mentally challenged students. For two decades now, she has been happily and diligently working for the New York City Board of Education.

Although teaching is her first passion, my mother also loves to write.

It started out as short stories, but she soon graduated to novels, and has since published seven books. In 2005, after devastating monsoon floods left 20 people dead and damaged thousands of homes in the district of Rangpur, my mother decided to write a novel about this particular village. Her initial goal was to bring awareness to the decrepit conditions of the district after the flood.

However, life happened, and the novel never saw completion.

About two years ago, she escalated her research and gained momentum on her novel. She also discovered Facebook, and social media became a new avenue for research. After building a strong community of friends, she discovered that there was a need for a school in the village of Sayadpur, which is located within Rangpur.

Children in Sayadpur have to walk several miles each day to get to school, and eventually, many of them drop out because of the lengthy commute. In Bangladesh, the only way out of poverty is through earning an education, but children often get sidetracked because their family can't afford to pay or their commute is too arduous. My mother has never forgotten her roots, and this was an opportunity to bestow her country the one thing that she has worked with for over two decades: education.

With the help of a few friends in Bangladesh, my mother has successfully laid the foundation for what will be known as Farzana Shuboj Bidaloy, which translates to Farzana's Green School.

The school will include:

· Five classrooms for grades kindergarten through 5
· Faculty room
· Principal's office
· Three bathrooms (boys, girls, and staff)
· Playground

Building a school in Bangladesh is not as hard as it may sound; it only takes a few grand. So far, we have successfully laid down most of the foundation, but we are looking to raise funds for the following:

· Furniture for the classrooms
· Plumbing system
· Plaster for the walls
· A few months worth of teachers' salaries (about $2,500 is needed per month for the teachers)


GoFundMe tells us to set a quota, but honestly, anything will be helpful, for a little goes quite a long way in a third-world country. It's so easy to take education for granted when it is given freely, so we are trying to give this opportunity to those who really, strongly desire and require it.

It's been incredible watching this school be built from the ground up, but we need your help to complete this ambitious project. Thank you ahead of time for any contributions made toward bringing the dreams of my mother, and those of a small village, to life.


I've added a video giving a tour of the school so far. In it you can see the foundations of the classrooms, the principal's main office, and the teacher's room.

Here are some photos exhibiting our progress so far.