Child Impact International
is an organization giving hope.
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Previously called Asian Aid,
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Child Impact
International is an organization
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fostering
permanent positive change
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in the lives of
disadvantaged children
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and their communities.
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Child Impact is committed
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to making a difference
in the lives of children
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and those who are in need.
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Serving
communities in India, Nepal,
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Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar,
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and will soon
expand to other countries.
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For the last 50 years,
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Child Impact has invested
in the futures of people
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and their investment is
proving infinite returns,
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driven by the dedication
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to helping those
who have the least.
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Child Impact is an organization
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focused on the
welfare of children,
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implementing
diverse development projects
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and sponsoring
thousands of children.
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Their outreach expands
from child rescue operations,
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to providing an
education for orphans, deaf,
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and the blind children
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giving them a sense of
place, a home, but above all,
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Child Impact is an
organization giving hope,
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giving hope to children,
giving hope to communities,
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giving hope to the
ones who needed the most.
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This is Hope in Motion.
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Bangladesh sits at the juncture
of two major tectonic plates
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that over time
have loaded with stress
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and present the risk of
a very damaging earthquake.
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Under the country lies an
extension of the fault line
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responsible for
the catastrophic 2004
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Boxing Day tsunami
that killed 200,000 people
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in Southern Asia.
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Building collapses in Bangladesh
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have been a
globally visible concern
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since the 2013
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Rana Plaza collapse in Dhaka
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which killed over 1,000
people and injured even more.
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While Bangladesh
has building codes,
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they are poorly enforced,
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and have only recently begun
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to adhere to develop standards.
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This situation poses a
problem for older buildings
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which may not have been built
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with modern
safety standards in mind,
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and whose
structures have been ravaged
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by the country's humid climate
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and made
vulnerable to disasters.
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At Kellogg Mookerjee
Memorial Seminary or KMMS
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there's one such building.
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This building sits at
the front of the campus
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and was built
almost 100 years ago.
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What can
institution that cares about
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the safety of its
students do in such a scenario?
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Part of the answer
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lies in the story of
the director of BCSS,
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Child Impact's implementing
partner in Bangladesh.
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Hi, this is Milton Das
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from Bangladesh
Children Sponsorship Services
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we call BCSS,
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and BCSS is an unique department
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of Seventh-day
Adventist Church in Bangladesh.
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BCSS works for
underprivileged children
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in Bangladesh,
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to go to the...
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to help the children
to go to the schools,
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especially to the
Adventist schools,
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where they have
the wonderful campuses
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to have the marvelous education,
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the co-education
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and the Christian education.
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The staff of BCSS and KMMS
come from diverse backgrounds,
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but are united in their
highly personal dedication
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with Child Impact International
to helping children.
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Their childhood
experiences are often not unlike
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those of the children they help.
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This includes Milton,
who works closely with KMMS
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and Child Impact.
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Milton came to KMMS as a child
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and now works as
a director for BCSS,
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which is an implementing
partner in Bangladesh
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for Child Impact International.
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Jim recently sat down
with him to learn his story.
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We were happy family.
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And, but when while I was
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five years of my age,
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my father passed away.
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And my brother was about two,
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and my sister was not yet born.
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And my mother was
pregnant that time.
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And it was really a disaster
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for our family to
survive and maintain,
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because my father
was only earning member
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of the family.
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My mother was illiterate woman,
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married while she was
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a teenager
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and she was just
finished eighth grade.
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So she was just a housewife
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and it was
really miserable for us.
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And that's then came the
sponsorship organization.
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And they sponsored me
and my brother, eventually,
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my sister even
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so that we can go
to Adventist schools.
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And even here I am
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at Kellogg Mookerjee
Memorial Seminary and School,
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and in this school
I did my high school.
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It was really
great blessing for me
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that through this sponsorship,
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I could study
and even my brother
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and my sister could study
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and we all are blessed
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so much that we
can be our own now.
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And we can support our family
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and my mother and the community.
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Milton journey from a
struggling child orphan
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to an educated professional
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working to help similar children
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could not have happened
if he had not been sponsored
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and impart because
of his sponsorship.
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KMMS has a
solution to its problems
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with the building.
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This building is very old,
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hundred years
and many places that,
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you know, this
rod is coming out.
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And that we checked by engineer,
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two experience engineer
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and they said that
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this building
need to demolish soon,
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it like six or
seven scale earthquake
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then it may demolish,
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so there will be
maybe big accident.
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When we visited the building,
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it was in a dangerous condition.
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The structure was
vulnerable to collapse
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and was being
used to hold a library,
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computer lab and classrooms
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for some of the
school's youngest students.
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But plans were being
made for a replacement
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that could not
only keep students safe,
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but improve the campus entirely.
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So here I am at the entrance way
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to KMMS School
in rural Bangladesh.
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The sad thing is this
school has over 400 students.
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And we have a large number
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that's Child Impact
of boarding students
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who are sponsored.
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This building on this side
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is going to be our
major project for 2020.
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This building houses
a preschool classrooms,
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a library, and administration.
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And to put it
simply, it's very dangerous.
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The front portion was
built over 100 years ago,
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the back portion over 40
years, and it's dangerous.
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So we're very excited
that we can help the school
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by replacing this
building as a safety issue.
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But it will also
be a big attraction
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for the school
to build its wall.
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So here we are in
the existing library
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in the old building.
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And this part of the building,
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as we've said, is
about 40 years old.
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As you can see,
they're getting ready
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to move the library books
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that are pretty keen to get out.
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And then if you come over here,
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you can see what's happening
with the condition of the roof.
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Above there is the roof.
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And as you can see the
water is coming through
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and the damage that's occurring.
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You can actually
see cracks there.
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And so that's just undermining
the total roof structure.
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The new building will
have a brand new library,
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a brand new
science lab, classrooms,
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and as I'll show
you shortly a preschool
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at the front of the building.
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Well, I'm sitting
in the old building
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where the
principal's office used to be,
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and he's had to move out
of this to another building,
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because simply
there was concrete
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falling from the roof
and it was no longer safe.
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So in the new building,
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there's going to be a
full administration section
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where the
principal, the treasurer
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and the office
staff can be based.
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And they're going to
face a huge improvement
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in the situation
that they currently face.
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The back half
where the library is,
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was built over 40 years ago.
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And so the new building
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which we're going
to explain shortly,
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is going to be a great
resource for the school,
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both in growing
its number of students,
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but also the
key reason is safely
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as we've clearly shown
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and the engineer's report
shows this building is not safe.
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You can see the
condition of the roof, okay?
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And then as we
come along this beam,
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here's a typical portion
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where the
plaster is coming away.
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You can see the rebar is rusted.
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So through the whole building,
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all the steel is like that
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and then there's
superficial cracks everywhere.
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You don't have to
be in this building
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long to see that
it has to be replaced.
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And the good news is,
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the new building
is going to give them
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a place of safety,
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we're going to
give them more capacity
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for the various uses
that the building will have.
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So here we are in the classroom
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on the top floor of
the existing building,
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and it doesn't take
long to see the problems.
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As you can see, there is a crack
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which has been
superficially filled,
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and then the
condition of the roof,
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the roofing's coming away,
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so they can no
longer use this classroom.
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And once again,
I'll explain later,
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but the new
building is going to have
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the full range of classrooms,
a library and a science lab.
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So here we are on
the roof of the building
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that's going to be demolished.
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And this part of
the building over here
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is what it was
originally a hospital
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built over 100 years ago,
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which the school's been
using for about 40 years,
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and this part where I'm standing
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was built about 40 years ago.
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And although it doesn't show it,
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on a dry day like this,
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the water is coming down
is actually going through
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what I'm standing on
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and weakening
the concrete below.
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It does give us a
great view of the school
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and great trees and
grounds that they have.
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But it's going to be
an exciting development
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to replace this building.
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The unsafe structure
has already been demolished
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and will be replaced
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with a state of
the art facility.
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So the building is going to
be bigger than the current one.
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As I said, there'll be
the preschool with the front.
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We're going to fill in the canal
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where will be a parking area
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for people to
bring their preschoolers.
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The building will be
the length of this one,
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plus an extra 80 feet.
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During our visit, those
plans were made more concrete.
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I want to thank the people
who are helping the school.
00:12:04.32\00:12:09.32
Tonight, I can announce that,
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that building is coming down
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and there will
be a new building.
00:12:13.29\00:12:15.03
So the new building
00:12:20.50\00:12:21.84
that we're going to
build here in Bangladesh
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is going to have a
wide range of users.
00:12:24.47\00:12:27.74
At the front end,
there's going to be a preschool
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which people will pay
to bring their students to.
00:12:30.68\00:12:34.02
There's going to be our
income generating project.
00:12:34.05\00:12:37.92
Then the rest of the building
00:12:37.95\00:12:39.29
is going to include
an administration block,
00:12:39.32\00:12:42.19
a new library, a
new science room,
00:12:42.22\00:12:45.39
and a number of classrooms.
00:12:45.43\00:12:47.70
So this is going
to be a big boost
00:12:47.73\00:12:49.46
to this mission school
00:12:49.50\00:12:50.97
is going to help
attract new students
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and will be a big boost
for the students at the school.
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A few weeks after our
visit, the demolition started.
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But there's still
much work to be done,
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and we need your help.
00:13:11.39\00:13:13.25
The title project is
over half a million dollars,
00:13:13.29\00:13:16.22
and we just have
$180,000 to still raise.
00:13:16.26\00:13:20.83
Would you please support
this project just in some way,
00:13:20.86\00:13:24.07
even a small donation
00:13:24.10\00:13:25.70
would assist this
real important appeal
00:13:25.73\00:13:28.77
for Child Impact in 2020.
00:13:28.80\00:13:31.77
Each year Child
Impact has its rice appeal
00:13:39.05\00:13:42.18
for needy schools in
countries like Bangladesh.
00:13:42.22\00:13:45.59
And I'm here now in Bangladesh,
00:13:45.62\00:13:47.89
and you can see
that at KMMS School,
00:13:47.92\00:13:50.59
these girls are
enjoying their rice meal.
00:13:50.63\00:13:53.50
Now they eat a
little differently to us,
00:13:53.53\00:13:55.63
but at least they're
enjoying a healthy lunch meal.
00:13:55.66\00:13:59.97
Not only does it
ensure that they have rice,
00:14:00.00\00:14:02.90
but it is also a big benefit
00:14:02.94\00:14:04.74
to the school for their finances
00:14:04.77\00:14:07.01
because food prices have
just escalated beyond control.
00:14:07.04\00:14:12.01
So thanks for supporting
the rice appeal in the past
00:14:12.05\00:14:15.22
and as we face it again in 2020,
00:14:15.25\00:14:18.42
we know that
you will support us.
00:14:18.45\00:14:20.49