Gem Munro serves the slums of Bangladesh

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To thank Gem Munro for his presentation, President-elect Susan Andreas-Bervel presented him with a certificate, and a donation was made to the Rotary Foundation in his honor.

At the Jan. 16 meeting of the Rotary Club of Tehachapi, the Club heard an interesting and inspiring presentation from Gem Munro, who has devoted his life and career to improving educational opportunities for disadvantaged people across Canada and abroad.

He is presently the director of the Amarok Society, a registered Canadian charity that provides education programs to the very poor in Bangladesh and India. He is a bestselling author and artist. His new book, "And Where the Wind Spun Them," follows the epic adventures of a resourceful girl and her courageous little brother, who struggle, by wit and grit, to overcome the perils and extreme disadvantages of very poor children in the world today. For their work, Gem and his wife, Dr. Tanyss Munro, were recipients of Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals, a very prestigious honor.

Gem has been on a road trip visiting Rotary clubs in Kern County to share his work, as Rotary International has been a partner of his charity for many years. He talked about the deplorable conditions in Bangladesh, a small country located to the east of India. Bangladesh is about 2/3 the size of California, but it is home to about 220 million people. He described Bangladesh as having "the worst quality of life anywhere in the world during peacetime." The cities are very dangerous, and millions live within the slums, which he said are "the worst of the worst slums in the entire world."

The conditions for children are especially concerning. Bangladesh is home to 70 million children and half of the children lack any access to an education, which limits their ability to change their circumstances. He said, "Bangladesh has the worst education system in the world." Young girls are often married off by the age of 8-10 years old.

When he and his wife learned of the situation in Bangladesh 20 years ago, they felt compelled to do something. They moved their family from their home in Canada to Bangladesh, to live among the people they wanted to help. They started a program to teach mothers to educate their children at home. In order to get the program started, they had to teach mothers basic skills, because they had never been able to attend school themselves. Most of the mothers have less than 600 words in their vocabulary, compared to American mothers who have a vocabulary of about 15,000 words. He said they start with basics, like learning to count, the alphabet and how to hold a pencil. They have a six-month program, where they teach literacy, arithmetic and English, because English is the language of the wealthy. They ask each mother to teach five children in her home, but many become teachers for the neighborhood, teaching 8-10 children at a time.

Gem said that the program has not been without challenges. There was a lot of resistance and danger posed by the slumlords, corrupt government and even the husbands, who do not want to see women educated. He said that also teaching these women conflict resolution skills has been important, as they are often socially isolated and live in violent situations. But most importantly, they teach women to think, so they can make decisions for themselves, their family and their community. As their program has grown, they would sometimes have a husband sit in to see what his wife was learning, then begin attending the class with her. They are seeing true success stories, as some of the children who came up in their program have been able to access education and gone on to college. He shared the story of one very bright girl who became a doctor, and now has returned to serve in the slum where she grew up. Their work is making a more educated and peaceful world possible for many people in the slums of Bangladesh.

The Tehachapi Rotary Club meets at noon every Thursday at Kelcy's, and is a time to gather for fellowship, learn about important and relevant topics and work together to support our local community. Rotary is the largest service organization in the world, and is committed to "Service Above Self," devoting time and resources to projects that make a difference around the globe. For more information about the Rotary Club, you can visit their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/RotaryClubofTehachapi/.