Slum Visit

On Tuesday our class visited the Korail slum in Dhaka. It's the largest slum in the city, and it's home to approximately 29,000 people. Their residence there is technically illegal, making it very difficult for quality services to reach this community. The slum is only accessible by boat--here are are some of my classmates being shuttled from one bank to the other.



And some of the slum in the foreground, next to the water, with the Dhaka city scape in the background.

Our group was assigned (once more) to look at housing, water and sanitation in the various households we visited. The experience there was extremely thought provoking, but I'm finding it rather difficult to translate my thoughts into words. As such, I'll provide a number of images without much commentary. If you have any questions, though, please feel free to ask, and I'll answer to the best of my ability.

I will say, though, that if you look like me, you will inevitably draw a very large crowd of children...

This family was actually very eager to have their photo taken--hard to tell by their expressions here, but those changed drastically when I showed them the image on the camera.

During the course of the day, we had the opportunity to visit a birthing center and a school, both operated by BRAC. The school was an absolute joy to see at the end of the day--after so much hardship, the children were the picture of happiness. They performed several songs and dances for us, and gladly demonstrated their knowledge of English.