Asrayan: The Search for a Roof

• Posted by Fatima Ahmed July 1, 2021

  • Price $5.00

  Asrayan Project: The Search for a Roof

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

  This is Rahim Miah. If you are from Bangladesh, then you must have seen people like him in the streets of Bangladesh.  They either sell snacks at your local school campus, drive rickshaw, work as day laborers, security guards or some are even beggars. They all have one thing in common. They are low income people or poor. Today, we will read about Rahim Miah's story. 

  
  

  Rahim Miah worked at a tea stall in Brahmanbaria. He dropped out of school and started working very early in his life to support his poor family. He worked on a variety of low income jobs at different districts. In the past few years, he had been working at a local tea stall. He and his family once owned a house when he used to live in Rajbari, but that was destroyed due to the river erosion and flood. Since then, Rahim Miah always rented a tiny house in Brahmanria and usually struggled to maintain his family. One day, he finally heard about the Asrayan project.   

  
  

  

  
  

  Rahim Miah heard that the Asrayan project was an initiative by the Bangladesh Government to distribute tin-shed pucca houses on two decimals of land free of cost. He heard that the government had already handed over more than 120,000 houses to the landless and homeless people. The project aimed to provide a house with land to every people like him so no one in the country remain landless, homeless and shelterless. Rahim Miah thought that this kind of initiative might improve life of the hardcore poor like him and include them in the mainstream of society. He personally knew so many homeless people, who were living beside the roads, footpaths, rail lines defying the rain and storm and so he thought this Asrayan project would help solve that problem. Rahim Miah finally got in touch with the government and was overjoyed to hear that he would get such a house! 

  
  

  

  
  

  The day came when Rahim Miah was finally given the key to his new house in Brahmanbaria! He was so delighted to get a new home.  The government officials told everyone in his village that the main purpose of the country’s economic policy was to supply necessary money to the grassroots people at different villages and arrange livelihoods for their overall development. 

  
  

  Now for our quiz question today, please answer the following: 

  
  

  To what extent do you believe that Asrayan Project will help the lower income group people to stand on their own feet?

  
  

  Please try to write your answer in 185 words or less in the comments section below. Please submit your answer by July 7th midnight, Bangladesh time. Then, we will share everyone's answers and start a discussion on this topic. The person with the best, practical, creative and non plagiarized answer will get $5. Runner-up will get $3. 

  
  

  Quiz concept designed by Ashiqur Rahman

  
  

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  

  The winner of this Asrayan quiz project is: 

  
  

  

  
  

  Zakaria Ahomed (Winner $5)

  
  

  Zakaria did a good job in giving some good facts and analysis and used those data to persuade that skill building strategies to learn new skills was the best way to help the poor in the long run. The best part of his answer was: shelter can only give you a way to live, but skill can improve the way of living.

  
  

   

  
  

  The runner-up of this quiz is: 

  
  

  

  
  

  Mesbah Abir (Runner-up, $3)

  
  

  Mesbah did a good job in explaining why education still remained the best tool to improve a society's condition in the long run. So in the Asrayan project, education should be the secondary focus in addition to housing to help people stand on their own feet. 

  
  

  -------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  

  The rest of our contributors also did extremely well, but since we can only pay 2 contributors, their names were not in the winner and runner-up list, but their answers were marvelous and helped us learn about this issue. So we wanted to highlight them also. The following people will not get paid, but we are highlighting their answers because it was very nicely written. 

  
  

  The third best contributor in this quiz is: 

  
  

  

  
  

  Kanta Akter

  
  

  Kanta did a good job by using different contrast in her answer to explain her point of view. For example, she mentioned how all the poor people are abused as homeless but Asrayan project has finally given them a roof. This contrast helped us to feel the tremendous hardship these homeless and jobless people face everyday!

  
  

   

  
  

  Fourth best contributor is Tanveer Tausif Ratul: 

  
  

  

  
  

  Tanveer did a very nice job of using some numbers and calculations to show how the Asrayan project helped the poor to save and use that saving to improve their current and future condition.  He mentioned about the hygiene and electricity problem and how Asrayan project solved that issue by providing latrine, electricity and water!

  
  

   

  
  

  The following were the other amazing contributors and their answers were also very knowledgeable.  Some of the main highlights of these contributors comments were that the Asrayan project helped the poor to save money since they did not have to pay rent.  That saving allowed them to have their own agriculture, business and education for their children.  So thanks to all of you! 

  
  

          

  
  

  Robiul Rajon    Noor Nafia   Farjana Lima    Shadman         Abhay Sunny

  
  

   

  
  

          

  
  

  David Tanvir    Rasheda Nisha     Nirjona    Mostafizur       Iftakhar

  
  

   

  
  

  Thanks to everybody for educating us on this topic. Stay tuned for more quizzes. 

  
  

   

  
  

   

  •