Life time opportunity

Earlier in March I had a vision of how great it would be to bring some of our younger students from Bangladesh to Dubai for a cultural and educational experience. It would also be a special moment to introduce the students to some of the key sponsors over the years to show them how far these students have come.

When I met these student's families many years ago they were living in the worse conditioned slums in Dhaka. A dirty area filled with garbage that the families used to construct their makeshift homes. Now these young girls have developed into bright, energetic individuals, speaking very good english and with ambitions far beyond their difficult beginnings.

To turn that vision into reality is another story. Bangladesh is a very difficult country and even if the students have an opportunity to go abroad the authorities make it very difficult, especially for young girls. A long list of documents are required once the passport and overseas visas are ready and each document has to be certified, notarized and attested by several ministries - and most simply refuse to do so. The reasons given are understandable, to protect the students welfare, but it seems that many simply just don't want these girls girls to have an opportunity or will only help if they personally benefit, a situation that I will never encourage or participate in.

This may have been one of my biggest challenges, to enable these girls to leave Bangladesh, it was extremely difficult and involved a lot of stressful drama and negotiation - but it was totally worth it. 

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for these girls to visit the UAE, somewhere they can learn so much about the opportunities and possibilities in this world. It was only made possible thanks to the Office of H.H. Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan who arranged the visas. The are also many more to thank, the many people who are getting involved and helping to provide such a memorable experience for them - I don't think they want to leave.