Agami Education Foundation holds online cultural competitions

Agami Education Foundation (AEF), a sister organization of Agami Inc., USA, has successfully organized a cultural competitions online in the middle of a pandemic with the underprivileged kids of 11 Agami-supported schools from all around the country.

This competitions were held for the purpose of keeping the kids involved in extracurricular activities, recognizing their talents and rewarding their enthusiasm. Amidst the global crisis, AEF tried to encourage the students to display their talents through this competition. A total of 147 submissions was received in this competition which comprised of 4 events- singing, poem recitation, art and story writing and two categories based on the age of the students. 

Students sent their work from many places all over the country. Despite many obstacles and difficulties like flood, low internet connectivity and infrastructural problems, they participated with great enthusiasm. Agamir Pathshala, a school funded by Agami in a remote place like Sajek, submitted the highest number of artworks. This depicts the motivation and eagerness of the underprivileged kids of the Agami-supported schools, and how all they need is a platform to flaunt their talents and education to help them evolve. 

Over a span of 10 days, all the performances of the students were collected within August 20. The teachers of the schools assisted the whole process by collecting every piece of art, performance and writing from the students and then sending them over to the volunteers of the respective schools. Without their cooperation, collecting the work of every interested student would not have been easy. 

The evaluation and winner announcement of the events took place on Facebook live. The judges joined the Facebook live of their respective events, evaluated the works of the students and announced the winners of the events. 

For every event there were separate judges. For the poem recitation event, there were two judges namely Anannya Goswami, Assistant Editor in “The Daily Prothom Alo” and executive member of Kanthashilon and Dr. Abu Hassan, one of the three founder members of Agami Inc. – both are avid poetry enthusiasts. For the singing event, there were two judges namely Dr. Biswajit Roy, a part-time teacher in Kazi Nazrul Islam University and Dipro Nishanto, a Chhayanaut graduate in Rabindra Sangeet and currently a student of Ashit Dey. For the story writing event, the judgement was done internally. For the art event, the evaluation was done based on public votes and judgment of internal organizing committee.

For the four events, with two categories in each, a total of 24 winners were selected for the competition. The prizes were sent to the winners of every event via courier.