The Amarok Society was created about 12 years ago to improve lives in Bangladesh, one of, if not, the poorest countries in the world. Gem and his wife are educators. They decided to commit their time to help change the lives of the people in the slums of Bangladesh and took 4 reluctant children with them.

 

Conventional solutions is to build schools. But you need infrastructure for that.

 

Their innovative plan was to teach mothers in the slums to become teachers, to teach the children everything they are taught.

 

The slums of Bangladesh are very dangerous.

 

Sumaya, a typical mother, married at age 11 to a 38 year old man. She moved into his family's home and effectively became a domestic slave. Her daughter was very inquisitive, so she enrolled in an Amarok school. There she learned to teach children. It is a structured organization, the same students at the same time daily. Learning has changed her life. Her daughter's life will be better. Her daughter, Aduri, now 6 years old, teaches 3 and 4 year old kids from the slum as well as her own maternal grandfather. He is learning from his grand-daughter to read and write together with 3 and 4 year olds.

 

This illustrates that the natural state of the human mind is not ignorance, but a desire to learn.

 

This is the only way to deal with terrorists / extremists, by education. Rotary has the power to help. By educating, creating reasoning minds will defeat extremists.

 

30 years ago, Gem and his wife became parents while working in northern first nation reserve, Fort Good Hope in NWT. They were given a baby boy by the elders to raise, teach and become a role model for other indigenous children.

 

Amarok Society is also working in Pakistan and in northern Canada.