Why is Rezwan a nominee?
Nominated Child Rights Hero
Mohammed Rezwan
Mohammed Rezwan has been nominated for his 25-year campaign for children’s right, and particularly girls’ right to go to school, despite �looding and increased poverty due to climate change.
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THE CHALLENGE Every year, thousands of schools and school routes are destroyed as a result of flooding in Bangladesh, which is being made worse by climate change. The education of millions of children is affected, and many never go back to school. Instead they are forced to work, and girls are often married off. THE WORK Rezwan and his organization Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha (SSS) run 26 floating schools on the rivers. The boat schools fetch the children where they live, so they can go to school even if the roads are under water. SSS also has floating libraries and health clinics, and offers vocational training on boat schools for young women. Every village with a boat school also has a Young Women’s Rights Association that fights for girls’ rights and campaigns against child marriage. RESULTS & VISION Since 1998, some 22,000 children have received an education through the boat schools. The floating libraries and health clinics reach 150,000 villagers every year. 15,000 young women receive vocational training to give them a better future. The practice of child marriage is declining where the boat schools visit. Rezwan wants to start up more boat schools. His idea of floating schools has spread throughout Bangladesh and to eight other countries.
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“We’ve always had flooding here in Bangladesh, but it’s much worse now. Thousands of schools are destroyed by flooding every year”, says Mohammed Rezwan, who fights for the right of all children to go to school in a country plagued by natural disasters. Bangladesh is one of the countries most severely affected by climate change. Children suffer most of all. Almost 20 million children in Bangladesh are affected by the consequences of extreme heat, drought, cyclones and flooding.
T
he heavy rains came every year during the monsoon season in the village of Shidhulai when Rezwan was growing up. Everything was flooded. Fields, homes and roads. Houses made of mud, straw and bamboo were dragged along by the floodwater, and people lost
everything they owned. Many died. Schools were destroyed and closed. And because the roads were left deep under water, you couldn’t walk or cycle to those schools that remained open. Many children were left without any kind of education. “That’s what it was like for
many of my friends, but it was a bit different for me.” Rezwan’s dad worked in the capital Dhaka, so the rest of the family lived with grandmother and grandfather in the village. Grandfather was a high school teacher who owned his own land and grew crops, and the house was
OUR R I GHTS!
CHANGE FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
As a changemaker, Rezwan helps ful�il children’s rights and achieve the following Global Goals: Goal 4: Quality education. Goal 5: Gender equality. Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy. Goal 13: Climate action.