Lotus Children’s Home (LCH) and nearby areas came under attack by heavy tropical storms in early June, 2017 and the rain is still continued with occasional floods.  This caused loss of many lives. Five people buried alive in Muralipara next to our LCH and two were hospitalized unconsciously.  There are more than 136 people lost th

eir life in Rangamati alone. The a

mount of rainfall in 2017 particularly where LCH is located is unbelievably higher than the recent years, perhaps up to three decades.  The constant rainfall with frequent storms were reported since early May 2017. They said they have never seen such a continuous and overwhelmingly heavy rain in their life. Lotus children and residential staffs were still horrified by the power of storms and landslide in front of their eyes.

One of the recently built children home was seriously affected and became unstable due to the landslides. Normal water canal was blocked by the landslide and created a new waterway inside the dhamma hall. The main road was fully blocked by the landslide for a month. People are now suffering from the shortage of food as their farms, crops, vegetables or properties were completely damaged by the power of storms, unexpected floods and landslides.

Lotus Children Home is now struggling to cope with the effect of this natural disaster. The food price has gone up to 50% after the disaster. As a result, the management committee now cannot provide nutritious foods with the allocated budget.  This affects mental and physical health of the Lotus children. Lotus Children Home is now urgently needed to spend or raise money for following areas:

- To spend additional expenditures on food about  $2000.00 (till December 2017) i.e. allocated money is not    enough due to increased food prices
- To create a proper drainage in three areas, which will cost about $5500.00
- To carry out repaired works such as cleaning, clear the debris and remove muds on the access road and around affected building about $800.00  ​
This is very urgent matter to cope with the effect of storms and landslide at Lotus Children Home.  Can you help us overcome this disaster? Please donate whatever you can, through our bank account or with PayPal Account. You can contact us via email: lotuschildreneducation@gmail.com

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As we have completed two hostels: one is for girls and the other for boys, we need a school for these children. We built a temporary Lotus Primary School in December 2018. This school will be used by the resident and non-resident children. There are three villages with more than 250 families looking for a suitable primary school near their village.  Children from these three villages also benefited from us. However, due to lack of funds, we cannot build a durable school building in this year. We have just built a house with five consisted rooms with tins, bamboos and timber-wood, which may last up to two to three years if the monsoon weather is sympathetic to us. Villagers are kind enough to help build this temporary school. Each family donated bamboos, tins, woods or labouring for the school- house.

While running the classes in this temporary house in 2019, we will look for donors who can help us build a proper primary school. If we build a concrete building, the premise should be two stories used for both primary and junior school children plus a long open hall for the general congregation.  The first floor will be used for the primary children while the second floor for the junior school. For the moment our children are now walking more than  KM for the primary school while three miles for junior school for their classes. Junior/high school children use the local transport for their school but it is very expensive for us to pay everyday. We also hope that the government of Bangladesh may help us to build our primary school even though it is still long way to convince the government. 

From the beginning, Lotus Children Home Education Project has been managed by Bhante Nagasena. He has been raising money from different social, spiritual, political groups in the local region while receiving some donations from his devotees who live in abroad. It is not easy for us to run it for the long term if we do not have corporate donors or government support, particularly to pay the permanent and appropriate salary to the teachers and staffs. We have secured two small buildings with the supports of government and Firefly Mission SQ.

The resident building is only one step that is crucial for the foundation of the Lotus Children Home but our ambition is to develop knowledge and skills as stated in our main objectives and visions. To develop knowledge is required an appropriate teachers and staffs. So we are now looking for donors or supporters for teaching staffs salary while looking for the separate donors for building.  To run a school from class 1 to 8 (year one to eight) we need at least eight teachers plus two office staffs. Each teacher’s salary is roughly calculated about 15000 (fifteen thousand salary in BD= $180 US), which is 70% of the government’s salary in Bangladesh. This salary is the utmost amount from us once a teacher becomes permanent but for the first year, we will only pay 5000 Taka monthly. 

Generally the age of primary school is limited to the five years old in Bangladesh government education system. From the year six to the year eight is called junior school. We need five teaching staffs and one office staff for the primary school while 6 teachers plus one office staff for the junior school. However, we will separate these two groups: the primary school teaching staffs and junior school teaching staffs. We are looking for sponsors for these two groups teaching staffs’ salaries from the government and private sectors and donors or sponsors. You are invited to support us for the primary school teacher’s salary until we receive the government support. However, for the junior school teachers, the government will pay only 50% of a teacher average salary. Even then, we still do not know whether the government will fund us at all. We may get funded for the primary school near future but we are desperate to seek your support for the junior/high school teachers' salaries. 

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As you see the photos below, we have launched the school on 1st January 2019 within this bamboos house primary school. We have invited the high ranking officers of Kaptai sub-district plus the head of education department, local chairman, councilors, reporters plus social workers and villagers to the event. The officers distributed books to the children. All guests are welcome by the local cultural shows! 

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​​1. We cannot survive without water on this planet. Lotus Children are not exceptional to this. Due to lack of forest or trees, the monsoon water stays only two months. The forest in our area, perhaps in every part of Chittagong Hill Tracts, are no longer sustainable. This is mainly due to the poverty of the people  in the region. They are known to be tribal people because they live in the forest and away from the towns or cities but forests are no longer supportable for their life. Forests are already used up as the inhabitants do not have other options for their survival. This hugely effects on their life. We can experience water's scarcity in every day. This is indeed a real problem. Lotus Children used to walk a long way to collect water for their daily usages. We are lucky again having Firefly Mission's on our side to overcome particularly this water problem! 

Firefly Mission has donated a dormitory for Lotus Children Home in 2016, especially to facilitate boys’ accommodation. This includes six toilets. The constructions of both toilets and hostel have already been completed since December, 2016 and started to accommodate Lotus Children since January 2017; but the toilets built by the Firefly Mission have never been used till March 2018 due to lack of supplied water. The job of supply water is now completed or fulfilled by the sponsors of Firefly Mission.

The impact on the children’s health and everyday life is hugely remarkable. Previously our children were lacking in a safe and secure living accommodation as they used to live under a treacherous bamboo’s house. This house did not protect against the adverse weather. With the support of Firefly Mission, their living condition is now improved. The Firefly Mission is then continued to support us with the sanitation and drinking water. This will help overcome health problem as Lotus Children are now safe and secure living condition. This creates not only a safe environment but also a peace of mind in their everyday life. Children can now focus on their education within this clean and safe environment. Our endless thanks to you, Firefly Mission!

2.  We have completed Dhamma Hall on 16th February 2018. 70% of it's funds are donated by Ko Billy and Ma Khine Zar and the remaining 30% are collected from different sources plus from LCET funds. This is an open room (roofs and half walls) 70 feet long and 25 feet wide. The premise can be used for multi-purposes such as students’ congregation, teaching, meditation, meeting, dinning and prayer.  The opening ceremony was attended by 45 monks and a few hundred devotees, local government officers, especial guests and visitors.  As we haven’t managed to build a primary school, this open space will primarily be used for the running of the classes.  Children are now happy to use the premise for their classes or relaxation. Previously, classes are held next to the children's accommodation. 

 3. Even though we have managed to build boys and girls dormitories separately, we don't have  a playground to play or to do exercise nearby the compound. In early February 2018, we have created a dam in order to save the loosed soil from the monsoon rainfalls. LCH is surrounded by the hill all around. So lands are naturally designed by the sloped hills. 50% of these sloped hills have become flat as we have leveled it by adding soils to the ground. Another 50% lands are still sloped land but this dam would save the loosed soil during the monsoon. The reason we have done is that thousands tons of soils lost every years as the monsoon rain sweeps away and creates a big canal every year. This dam was costly as we have to make it with concretes, rocks and cements. Hopefully, in coming years, the land naturally would get flat and leveled by the soils in the monsoon rain.

 Hope that children would then be able to play and relax in the field/ground. The other important reason for this dam is that we cannot make drainage if the canal is uneven or slopes. Once the land is leveled by the natural soils within the dam, we will make a proper drainage. Otherwise, the drain will not stay as the rainfall of the monsoon is unpredictable. This is our engineer plans! We are thankful to those local people who keenly participated in the volunteer works. There are three villages with over 400 people participated in the volunteer labour works. It took more than a week, each day with more than 50 people being involved in the volunteer labour works. If we pay for their works, the total cost would come up to the thousands pound or more. We appreciate and greatly thankful to the volunteers. 

 4. Primary school project is unfortunately remained incomplete although our effort is restless and endless over the course of last four years. This is mainly due to lack of funds. Funds are needed for teacher’s salaries and for the construction of a primary school building.  Primary school children used to undertake their classes in their accommodation, but they are now started to use in dhamma hall while the junior school children are walking three miles away journey every day or take a local transport. It is indeed very difficult for them to walk everyday under the intense heat in the hot season and dangerous walks during monsoon. A better option for the moment is to transport them by a pickup car until we can have our own school. We are lucky that there is a small road or one line road between our LCH and the junior school. They can go to the school by three wheel taxi every day but it is costly for them. People in the west may see walking as being good for health but the intense heat and monsoon rain is rather unhelpful to their health. Most importantly, it effects on children’s studies times. We should think of a second hand (Indian product pick up) for the transportation. It will also be helpful to buy goods from the market if we have a pickup. It is important and meaningful for multi-purposes; it will even be helpful to transport patients to hospital. The pickup would cost about £5000.00. CAN YOU SUPPORT FOR THIS CAUSE!

Activities and News @ Lotus Children's Home in   December 2018

LOTUS CHILDREN'S EDUCATION TRUST -LCET

Appeal for recent disaster in Lotus Children Home

These are photos of our new activities with primary school construction, launching the school ceremony and distribution of the school books to the children by the sub-district highranking officer of Kaptai, Rangamati

REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1170236