SATKHIRA, Bangladesh – Sixteen students from the Shanghai American School in China recently spent six days building three houses for poor Muslim families in Satkhira, southern Bangladesh.
According to Ahlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA.ir), the local wing of Habitat for Humanity, an international ecumenical ministry that helps build houses for families in need, provided the housing loan.
The students in the team, which built the houses for free, were from Canada, China, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Korea and the United States.
“Our students have one week of school holidays,” said Katrina Mongous, one of two teachers who accompanied the students. “They decided to spend the time helping the poor and getting to know the culture of another country.”
Mongous, a Catholic from New Zealand, said three more student teams were doing similar voluntary working in Dhaka and Mymensingh, and also in Nepal.
Jessie Liu, 17, a 12th-grade Chinese student, said that for a long time, she had wanted to come to Bangladesh to help the poor through manual labor.
“There is a big difference between helping the poor through donations and helping in person,” she said. “Through this service I’m not only helping them but also enriching my knowledge and experience.”
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