The slum population in Dhaka has doubled in a decade, reaching 3.4 million in 2006 out of a population of 12 million, or approximately 28% of the official city population. The number of slum dwellers is increasing dangerously contributing to because of poverty and climate change. The increase is due to internal migration and the centralized economic and administrative system that currently operates in Bangladesh.

Most of the poor people who come to Dhaka from the villages hope their lives will change. Unfortunately these marginalised groups do not get good jobs or improve their life facilities after migrating to the city; most of the men are involved with rickshaw pulling, hawking or construction work, all of them risky, heavy work producing little income, which is why people have to live in the slums.

In the slums there are no minimum facilities of health, education and security. The children grow up within a social climate shaped by high risks of poverty, illiteracy, drug trafficking and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

NABO JIBON KENDRO has stepped in to try and redress this situation by running a school slum children. They provide good education and food for nutrition to all children attending their school. The aim of the school is to bring the slum children into a mainstream life situation so that they can contribute in the development process. The school was established in 1995 and is supported by donors from Austria. The children are happy to learn and get the opportunity to be a good citizen.

Austrian teacher Mica Vamos and her mother teach the children a variety of different subjects like story telling, geography, mathematics, color making, drawing and group participation. They use, wherever possible, alternative educational materials made by students from Austria