In the height of monsoon season in northern Bangladesh, a young girl runs to the riverbank near her village. Her regular school building is closed due to floodwaters, but a different kind of classroom awaits her—one that floats.
“A boat school is the combinations of a school bus and a schoolhouse,” says Mohammed Rezwan, executive director of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha and the social entrepreneur behind its mobile boat schools.
Rezwan and his organization are featured in the new documentary Easy Like Water, part of the Sundance Institute’s Stories of Change initiative.
In 2003, The Global Fund for Children became the first institutional investor in Shidhulai’s single boat school. Today, the organizations boasts a fleet of more than 50 floating schools, libraries, health clinics, and training centers, serving nearly 100,000 people in flood-prone areas of Bangladesh.
With recommendations from GFC, Shidhulai has won numerous awards, including the $1 million Access to Learning Award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. GFC also gave a grant to support the production of Easy Like Water.
Mindful of the rising sea levels, Rezwan recognizes that much of his country may one day disappear, but he remains hopeful.
“Issues like this need local solutions by local people,” he says. “Shidhulai is proving that it is possible to deal with this climate change, to tackle pollution, and at the same time, to lift people out of poverty.
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