On a summer afternoon, orphan.love arranged an experiential tour with a group of 40 participants comprising of orphans (from class 5-11) and their guardians. They took a ride across the Dhaka city from their rural village to learn more about National Museum (Jatiya Jadu Ghor). Upon inquiring on what they expected to see at the National Museum, most of the orphans mentioned, ‘some lecture on the history of Bangladesh,’ ‘more about the 1971 war,’ and ‘something similar to Novo Theatre with big projector screen’. Little could they relate to the ‘museum’ bit.

As the group were ushered into the National Museum, they were not prepared to witness physical artefacts dating to historical times. Every single face lit up with curiosity and surprise. Room after room, floor after floor, they were lost in their own world, trying to make sense of the tangible artefacts that made up a huge part of Bangladesh’s history.

“I have never seen something like this before,” said a 7th grader in awe as we exited the museum, “This is a different form of learning that I wish I had many years ago! For me, I never liked history because it was always in lecture mode or forced homework. Seeing these clothes worn by our people back in the history, the swords, rifles, the room where Sheikh Mojibur Rahman was assassinated, it feels very real. Now, I feel very emotionally empowered to be part of a liberated country.”

When they were informed that visiting Jadu Ghor is part of the curricula of students in Dhaka city, their response was very insightful.

“In that case, they are lucky that they were empowered early on to become responsible citizens of this country.”

 

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