We’re proud to announce the launch of Arohon, a brand new charitable organisation founded by my younger sister Maherunesa and myself. The aim is, quite simply, to try to make the world a more awesome place for others, particularly through focusing on eliminating poverty, promoting education, and empowering women.

However, first things first, we’d also like to introduce our flagship project. Watch the video!

That’s right! We’re climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, trying to raise £5000 in sponsorship - and every penny will go towards improving the resources of Nikrail Gonokendra Pathagar: that is, upgrading their library from a tiny, tin room to a brick, three-story building, and providing them with the funds they need in order to continue their work promoting education in the area (for example, their scholarship program for kids, and helping them to teach skills to unemployed young people so that they can work in agriculture, etc). Lastly, but certainly not least, the money will also help to establish a women’s education centre.

Please sponsor us here:

Climbing a mountain really isn’t something we’re used to doing. This is going to be a massive (and quite scary!) physical undertaking for us, so we will definitely need your support in every way!

We’ll also be video blogging as much of the process as humanly possible – from our training sessions, to the climb itself, to the improvement of the Nikrail Public Library and establishing a brand new women’s education centre, showing you the change that you’ve helped to bring about.

I’m sure you have lots of questions, so to answer just a selection (also available on our FAQ):

Why are you doing this? How did it happen?

Well, 18 months ago Mitu ran her first ever half-marathon (something which was, back then, a seemingly insurmountable physical endeavour), and managed to raise lots of money on behalf of a brilliant charity called Right To Play. Maherunesa also ran a half-marathon a year later, and raised money for Plan UK. While they are both great causes, we wondered how significant this money would seem to a small grassroots organisation in a developing country, and how far it would go. Add to that, of course, our ethnic background, and being aware of the social and economic conditions in Bangladesh, and we wanted to be able to raise a significant amount of money for a small organisation to bring about real, impactful change – which we can also keep you closely updated about, thanks to the power of the Internet!

So, for our next physical endeavour, we (crazily) decided on climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, to raise money to bring about real change in Nikrail,  a small but densely populated rural area in Bangladesh.

How will the £5000 be used?

Firstly, every penny is going towards supporting the work of Nikrail Gonokendra Pathagar: that is, upgrading their library from a tiny, tin room to a brick three storey building, and providing them with the funds they need in order to continue their work promoting education in the area (for example, their scholarship program for kids, and helping them to teach skills to unemployed young people so that they can work in agriculture, etc). Lastly, but certainly not least, the money will also help to establish a women’s education centre.

Mitu and Maherunesa are funding their Kilimanjaro climb themselves, so none of the £5000 we’re hoping to raise in sponsorship will go towards any of those costs – it’ll all go to those who really need it. Better still, once we’ve raised the money, thanks to the wonder of the Internet and video blogging, we will show you the real change you’ve helped to make!

Why did you choose Nikrail Gonokendra Pathagar?

Well, our father (hereafter referred to as Daddy Khandaker) has been very aware of the organisation for years, as it operates in the area in which our father grew up, and where many of his family still live. Also, in the interests of full disclosure, our late uncle was a significant benefactor of the organisation’s scholarship program for children aged 7-9. When we visited in December 2009, the organisation invited us to have a look at their building, and told us of their wish to extend their reach to help the area slowly but surely climb out of poverty by promoting education. We instantly wanted to help!

We also suggested that there should also be a particular focus on education and empowerment for adult women, which they were very happy to promote!

So ‘Arohon’ is a new charitable organisation – are you working on this full-time? What are you doing other than this first project?

Arohon is not a registered charity (since we have no record of turnover just yet – but we will soon, with your help!) , but we plan to do all we can to promote education, particularly for women, in countries that need it the most. We’re doing this one project at a time; we’re not necessarily just limiting ourselves to Bangladesh, but that is where we are starting.

However, this is certainly not a full-time endeavour! Rather, this is something we’re doing in addition to our normal every day activites! Mitu is a video games PhD researcher, and Maherunesa is a soon-to-be law student. We’re climbing the mountain (after lots of training!) and raising the money, which will then be given to Nikrail Gonokendra Pathagar to put into action.

If you have any further questions, comments, or whatever, please do fire away.