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Shawkot Ali, of Ottawa, Canada, is originally from Gopalgonj, Bangladesh. He graduated with a degree in Philosophy prior to immigrating to Canada. After spending several years working in different jobs in search of steady employment, he now drives 6 1/2 nights a week for Blue Line Taxi in Ottawa. Mr. Ali lives in low income housing with his wife who works part-time, and their two children.

In 2005, Shawkot went home to Bangladesh to visit his family and to discuss with them an idea that he had about starting a school in his hometown of Gopalgonj. He first met with his boyhood friend and nephew, Quamrul, who is now a Brigadier General in the Bangladesh Army. Quamrul was very enthusiastic about the idea of giving something back to their native country and whole heartedly supported Shawkot’s idea of a school, promising to do whatever he could to help.

He suggested that the first step was a meeting of Shawkot’s great circle of friends and family to garner support, especially for land and money. This meeting was a huge success. Everyone was very enthusiastic, especially Shawkot’s eldest sister, Fatima, and brother, Munsur. One of his many nieces had a suitable piece of land which he rented for the first two years before he was able to purchase it.

With the assistance and full support of his family and friends, in 2006, Mr. Ali established the Maleka Khatoon School in his mother Maleka's memory. He wanted the poorest of the poor children of his hometown to have access to quality education in order that they know of a world beyond their own, to achieve their full potential, and to give them an opportunity to enter college or to find employment.

Family and friends contributed money and time: the Advisory Committee was formed. Nazmul Islam, a banker, became the Acting Chairman of the school and of the Executive Committee; Mohammad Ali, a business man, agreed to manage the finances; Maruf Hasan, a lawyer, became the Director of Education; Tasmin Shahnaz, a Telecommunications Specialist took over Teacher-Student relations; and Mahfuza Islam, a Social Worker, is responsible for Daily Affairs of the school. All are volunteers.

At first, the group built a small bamboo and tin structure to house their 8 students and advertised for a teacher whom they interviewed and hired. They had a school which they had named Maleka, which means Queen in Bengali, after Shawkot’s mother. Once the word spread that there was a new private school for the poor in Gopalgonj and that children could get a good education there, the demand grew and so did the school.

Then, Shelley Page, of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, took a ride in Shawkot’s taxi and wrote a very compelling story about his passion, Maleka Academy now a registered Canadian charity under the name Maleka Khatoon School. Terry Dunlap, a successful and well-respected local businessman with a very big heart read the article and contacted Mr. Ali immediately about getting involved.

Mr. Dunlap, who was retiring after an illustrious career in the construction industry in Ottawa, where he rose from apprentice plumber to part owner of the most respected mechanical contracting firm in Ontario, Modern Niagara Group Inc., adopted the school as a retirement project. What followed can only be described as a series of minor miracles.

With the backing of his company, Mr. Dunlap contributed greatly to the school and he continued on with the process of applying to the Canadian Government for designating Maleka Khatoon School as a charitable institution. The Canadian Government came through with the charitable designation and an Executive Committee was born.

Mary Dunlap, Terry's wife, a retired French teacher and consultant/counselor for the Government of Canada, volunteered to be the Executive Secretary of the Committee. Mary also offers her time as the school’s Education Consultant advising the teachers on effective teaching practices and related issues. She is responsible for the Committee meeting minutes.

Catherine Ginies, Mary's sister, who runs her own business as a website designer/developer and graphic artist, donated a custom website and new logo for the school. She designed the website for the students and school as well as for charity purposes. Catherine volunteers in maintaining the website (http://school4poor.com) and office business as required.

Once Shawkot and Terry met, the school grew very quickly as it became easier to build more classrooms, hire more teachers, and purchase more supplies. As of September, 2009, the students numbered over 400 and there are 18 teachers and 2 teacher assistants as well as 1 night guard, 1 janitor, and 2 accountant/clerks. Because there are approximately 110 children who live too far or are too small to walk to school, there are 9 rickshaw “school buses” and 9 rickshaw drivers who also work on the team.

The next phase of the vision for the Maleka Khatoon School is to upgrade the present structure from bamboo and tin cover to brick and mortar and then to build a second school offering grades 6 to 12. This will allow the children to continue their education until they are ready either for college or the workforce. It should be noted that there is a university planned for the region of Gopalgonj which is a great motivation for our team.

Taxi driver finds meaning of life

by Shelley Page
The Ottawa Citizen
April 08, 2007
pg. B2

As a cabbie with a philosophy degree, Shawkot Ali has spent stretches of time contemplating the meaning of life, particularly his own, as he trawls the city for fares in the middle of the night.

The 46-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh enjoys a simple but rich life that includes a wife and two kids crammed into a one-bedroom apartment in Vanier. Ali could have saved his money to buy a small house in the suburbs, but he’s not convinced his life could be any better. He says Ottawa is “possibly the best city in the world.”

As he drives, he considered the wonderful education his children — eight and four — will receive in Canada. And he thinks often of his village in Gopalgonj, 150 kilometres southeast of Dhaka. The community is very poor and until recently many children there did not go to school. If they did, they went in rags to rundown classrooms.

He thinks also of his mother, long dead, who always believed in the power of education to set people free. She managed to educate Ali’s nine brothers and sisters. Her struggles to give him a future sit heavy in Ali’s heart.

Scooping up deputy ministers with their big plans and high-tech wizards with grand ideas and drunken university students who talk about sex and other vulgarities, he used to get distracted, imagining building a Canadian-style school for the people back home. Sometimes he’d discuss his dreams with his passengers, many of whom have far greater means than Ali.

Other times, he’d push the dream from his mind. How could a cabbie on the other side of the world hope to accomplish such a miracle?

“Without a mission, without a plan to help people, I was always a bit unhappy,” Ali said recently at his home, over a spread of Indian food prepared by his wife, Selina, who sat at his side nodding thoughtfully as he spoke. “I think about things maybe differently than some people who have greater means than me.”

Ali arrived in Canada from Bangladesh 16 years ago. He worked in a factory and a restaurant in Montreal and then, in 2002, he came to Ottawa to attend taxi driver training at Algonquin College.

He sweeps his arm around his humble surroundings. “You might think I have very little, but I have a lot. I have a place to sleep, my children have good education, we have good food. We don’t need any more.”

Ali works six full days a week and one half day. He saves for his children’s education, but always put aside a little bit of money hoping one day to help villagers back home. Sometimes he’d chuckle at his foolishness. Other times, he’d think of his dead mother.

One day, two years ago, he decided to get serious.

Ali flew to Bangladesh to meet with his larger family of nine brothers and sisters. Ali outlined his vision for the school: It would be free, so even the poorest students could attend. And children would wear uniforms, so those who might otherwise come in rags would not be singled out. His school would provide the notebooks and pencils that many other schools require children to purchase on their own. At his school, doctors would visit twice a year to check the children’s health. There would be rules for cleanliness and promptness. And many of the teachers would be women and half of the students would be girls.

He asked his family for help. Instead of laughing, they embraced the idea. But even as his family pooled their money, they did not have the estimated $20,000 required. Ali visited some of the wealthiest men in his village and asked to borrow money. He sold land that had been left to him by his parents. He returned home to Canada, but ran up his phone bill making plans.

Ali pushes his plate aside and pulls out the photographs of his school. There are 10 classrooms and 12 teachers, eight of them women. Ali has just returned from visiting the school. It is all he imagined.

An English banner across the top reads: Maleka Academy: A Home of Confidence and Success. Maleka was his mother’s name.

The school opened a year ago with eight pupils. Now there are 250. Ali flips through dozens of photographs of his dream come true. In one photo, Ali holds a microphone and speaks to excited parents. Other photos show dozens of children in blue uniforms performing exercises. In another, they sit on wooden benches learning to read in new classrooms built of tin, bamboo and cement. In yet another, their mouths are open, singing “We Shall Overcome” in English.

Some of the children’s parents drive rickshaws or sell food in the streets. Ali says he is proud that his school allows such children an equal chance at a future.

“He is now a hero in his village,” Selina says proudly.

So now what? He hopes it can become a high school. And maybe — or is this crazy? — a university that is free for all to attend. It costs $800 a month to keep the school running. It’s a sum that is raised the same way he raised money through the school, begging and borrowing and shaking out his own pockets.

Ali dreams about the possibilities as he drives at night. When he contemplates the meaning of his life, he can’t help but smile. Sometimes he talks philosophy with his passengers, but not always. “Mostly everyone here studies computer science,” he says with a happy laugh.

PAGE B2 THE CITIZEN’S WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 2007 Published by the proprietor, Ottawa Citizen, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc., at 1101 Baxter Rd., Box 5020 Ottawa, Ont., K2C 3M4. Fax: 613-726-5877; Tel: 613-726-6868; e-mail: cw@thecitizen.canwest.com. James Orban, Publisher; Scott Anderson, Editor-in-Chief; Carl Neustaedter, Sunday Editor; Susan Allan, Editor, Citizen’s Weekly; Mike Gillespie, Arts and Books Editor; Julius Majerczyk, Associate Editor; Jordan Juby, Jackie Beingessner, Kit Collins, Leslie Laskarin, Susan McDonough, Paula McLaughlin, Designers.

Educating the poor in Bangladesh

A former chair of the OCA has committed part of his retired life to helping fund construction and operations of a school in one of the world’s poorest countries. And he’d like your help.

Anyone who knows former OCA chairman Terry Dunlap knows his heart is as wide as his smile. So it may not be entirely surprising to learn that, as he transitions into retirement from the Modern Niagara Group, he’s taken on some charitable work. What may surprise you, however, is the scope of the work he’s adopted.

Last winter, Dunlap and his wife Mary travelled to a small village in Bangladesh to view firsthand the school they helped build and meet some of the 400 students who, thanks in part to them, now receive free elementary-school educations. Although the idea to launch this project was never Dunlap’s, when he learned of the initiative, he jumped.

“I read an article in the newspaper about two years ago,” he says. “It was about a Bangladeshi cab driver—Shawkot Ali—here in Ottawa who established a school in his native country to give back to a community in need.”

Dunlap was inspired by the article. He looked up Ali’s address in the phone book and visited him a shortly afterwards with a large-dollar cheque in hand.

“He just about fell off his chair when I gave him the money,” Dunlap recalls. “Here’s a man of modest means who had gone into debt to fund construction of the school in the first place. I knew he’d put the money to good use and that I’d be able to get involved.”

Ali established the Maleka Academy—named after his late mother who believed in the power of education to set people free—in Gopalgonj, a town of 150,000 people located 150km southeast of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka in March 2006. He funded construction of the school using money borrowed from friends and family. And in those days, the building accommodated only eight people.

In the ensuing months and years, Ali persisted. He saved money from every paycheque to fund the school’s operating and capital expenses. By the spring of 2007, Maleka Academy had grown to accommodate 250 students and 15 teachers. Today, it houses 400 students and has 16 classrooms.

“The Bangladeshi education system is a lot like ours in Ontario,” says Dunlap. “The Maleka Academy teaches kids in kindergarten to Grade 5. We hope to institute a Grade 6 program soon and our goal is to build a second academy that will one day accommodate kids from Grades 7 to 12.”

The school curricula are as you might expect. For five half days each week, students learn Bangladeshi culture, English grammar, and dance and music. They also receive physical exercise and regular medical checkups. To keep students motivated, teachers offer incentives such as student of-the-month awards, while staff are paid more than they would be at a regular public school.

“The town and the education ministry have really embraced this project, which is encouraging,” says Dunlap. “Now that the program is off the ground and running, we’re targeting a few improvements.”

Most of Bangladesh lies in a flood plain and the country’s monsoon season devastates its already-poor infrastructure. Happily, Gopalgonj is located in a part of the country that is not on a flood plain, but the Maleka Academy’s buildings are constructed only from tin-pan siding with bamboo reinforcement. Dunlap says the buildings don’t stand much of a chance of survival in the fierce storms that are common in that part of the world. That’s why he’s leading a fundraising campaign to re-build the academy’s buildings out of costly bricks and mortar.

“I’d like to get some support from Ottawa’s construction community on this project,” he says. “We’ve all seen what this great community is capable of in times of need—the construction of Roger’s House and the Shepherd’s of Good Hope Millennium project are two examples that come to mind immediately. I hope that people can see how important it is not only to support great causes close to home, but also in other parts of the world.”

To that end, Dunlap has applied for—and received—charitable status from the Government of Canada for the Maleka Academy initiative. That means that all donations are tax-exempt.

Dunlap credits Modern Niagara Ottawa for its support of the Maleka Academy. The company’s charitable committee raised a lot of money that was used to cover the school’s annual operating and expansion costs.

“One of the most important things about this project for me—other than helping people who need the most support,” says Dunlap, “is the fact that I can see the results of the money bring spent. I enjoy watching the school grow and I plan to visit regularly—at least once a year—when I’m fully retired.”

Dunlap will return to Gopalgonj in January and plans to make his visit an extended stay. He says he’s interested not only in seeing more of the country, but also teaching some of the students firsthand.

“It’s amazing to see the promise that these children hold. I’m so glad to be a part of this important project.” Anyone interested in supporting the Maleka Academy should contact Terry Dunlap at 613-897-7507 or visit www.school4poor.com

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