Sponsor a Young Changemaker · Korail, Dhaka

A child in Korail slum is
solving the problems
no one else will.

Korail is Dhaka's largest slum. We give its children a computer, a mentor, and the skills to build real solutions for their own community.

Operated by The Tech Academy · Banani, Dhaka 16 years in underserved communities Partner BLAST
KORAIL · DHAKA Aerial view of Korail, Dhaka's largest slum, on the edge of Banani Lake with the city's high-rises beyond.
Flagship cohort · 5 children · the Fire-Alert Team
01 / Orientation
Where is Korail?

A slum the size of 90 acres, pressed against Dhaka's richest neighbourhoods.

Korail is the largest slum in Dhaka. More than 200,000 people live on 90 acres of land, pressed between two of the city's wealthiest neighbourhoods.

Many came here after losing everything to floods and cyclones. Our classroom in Banani is less than a kilometre from where they sleep.

Korail in context23.787° N · 90.412° E
GULSHAN BANANI Korail TTA venue ~500 m N
Korail slum Gulshan / Banani TTA venue
0
residents on ~90 acres of land
0
acres of government land
0
major fires in 2 years (since 2023)
0
people left homeless in a single night — 25 Nov 2025

Verified fire record · Korail

Most fires caused by electrical short circuits or gas leaks. Lanes are too narrow for fire trucks; the slum has a single congested entry point.

02 / The reality
What life is like here

Three problems waiting for someone from inside the community to solve.

01

Fire

Homes of tin and bamboo, packed tight. Lanes too narrow for fire trucks. In November 2025, a single fire left thousands homeless overnight.

SDG 11 Sustainable Cities & Communities
02

Water & Sanitation

After every disaster, families go without clean water and toilets. Sanitation is fragile even on a normal day.

SDG 6 Clean Water & Sanitation
03

Opportunity

Bright children. No computers, no path out. Talent waiting for tools.

SDG 4 · 1 Quality Education + No Poverty

“These aren't problems to be pitied. They're problems waiting for someone from inside the community to solve them. That's what we build.

02.5 / The core argument
Why not just send them to school?

School is good. It is not enough.

Reading and arithmetic matter. But what do they do for a child who goes home to a place that can burn down overnight? After school, we teach these children to build real answers to real problems.

Every child deserves the chance to shape their own future.
In Korail, a child can build a fire-alert system for the street her family sleeps on.
Same potential. Higher stakes.
The argument, in one line.
Inside The Tech Academy
A mentor and a student looking together at a laptop in The Tech Academy innovation lab.
01 / 04A good environment to learn in.
Two students using a power drill on a workbench, the city skyline behind them.
02 / 04Hands-on, practical skills.
Students assembling a robotics chassis with metal rails and motors.
03 / 04Building real robotics.
A student writing code on a laptop beside a wired robotics build.
04 / 04Learning to code, for real.

Today

These children should not have to wait ten years to face the dangers they live with right now. We give them the tools today.

Tomorrow

A child who can spot a problem, use technology to solve it, and see it through carries that skill for life.

03 / The method
Our approach

We don't give charity.
We build changemakers.

We don't teach children to memorise. We teach them to build — to find a real problem in their own community, and design a working answer to it.

04 / Behind the model
How a child finds their solution

Four moves. A structured, research-based mentorship method.

Move 01

Observation

We start with what the child sees in their own community — what hurts, what's missing.

Move 02

Framing

A mentor works one-on-one to turn a big problem into a question the child can answer.

Move 03

Prototype

The child builds, tests, fails, tries again. Guided, never spoon-fed. Failure is part of learning.

Move 04

Ownership

The result is a solution that is theirs — built from their own life.

05 / Track record
16 years in these communities

We didn't start with Korail by accident.
It's where we began.

Our origin story.

The Tech Academy's very first work was teaching street children — many from Korail itself. This community is where we started.

CAFFE — Computers Are Free For Everyone, a registered UK charity, partners with us to give free computer and vocational training to young people from low-income homes — from coding and robotics to web design and trades.

16+
years inside Dhaka's underserved communities — and counting.
Korail Notun Bazar Malibagh Korail (women) Sylhet Bandarban N BANGLADESH · 1:6 000 000
KorailStreet children — our founding community
Where we began
Notun BazarCAFFE · free computer access for everyone
Since 2010 · 16+ years
MalibaghWorking children, with Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK)
Programme
Korail · womenWorked with women through BRAC
Partner: BRAC
SylhetOngoing work with an underserved community
Ongoing
BandarbanWorked with the Mro indigenous community
Programme
06 / Trust multiplier
We don't do this alone

A child's idea is only the beginning. Real partners carry it forward.

When a Korail child builds a real solution, it needs real-world support to reach families. We partner with people who have spent decades inside these communities.

BLAST

Current partner

One of Bangladesh's largest legal aid organisations, working in over nineteen districts to support people who cannot afford a lawyer.

Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK)

Planned · incoming

A human rights and legal aid organisation, founded in 1986. Long history of supporting working children and women.

“Whenever a child creates a solution, the right people — with years of experience inside this community — are there to help it grow. The impact belongs to the community.

07 / The faces
Meet the changemakers

Five children. One mission.
A fire-alert system for their own community.

Flagship · Sponsorship Programme 1

The Fire-Alert Team.

Mission · build a fire-alert system for Korail

These five children go to school like any other. This is what they do after school. They are building a system that could warn their neighbours before the next fire spreads — in a place where fires hit four times in two years.

They are not in a hobby club. They are solving a danger their own families sleep next to. That is the difference a sponsor backs.

Sponsoring the team funds the whole effort, end to end.

THE FIRE-ALERT TEAMFive children building a fire-alert system on a workbench in The Tech Academy innovation lab, overlooking Korail.
14 years old
Rumi
wants the alert wired into every lane.
13 years old
Ayan
the team's electronics-lead-in-training.
12 years old
Sumi
maps the narrow alleys nightly.
14 years old
Tasin
writes the code that listens for smoke.
13 years old
Nila
talks to neighbours; the team's translator-in-chief.

Names and details shown here are placeholders pending child-safeguarding consent.

Where your support goes

Real numbers. Three stages.

A child's journey runs in three stages. Here is what each one costs.

Step 1

Onboarding

19,500BDT
≈ €150

Students learn about different technologies — the foundation everything else is built on.

Step 2

Foundation

49,500BDT
≈ €380

They go deep into a specific skill that will carry them through their incubation project.

Step 3

Incubation

25,000 – 75,000BDT
≈ €190 – €580

They build the real product or service — final cost depends on project complexity.

09 / Get in touch
Talk to a real person

Have a question, or ready to give? Write to us directly.

Tell us what you have in mind. A member of The Tech Academy team will reply within 2 working days — no automated replies, no pressure.

10 / Trust & transparency
Who you are giving to

The Tech Academy, operating under Gamify Limited. Banani, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Who we are

The Tech Academy is the educational arm of Gamify Limited, registered in Bangladesh. Full legal details on request.

How we report

  • · Quarterly photo and progress updates.
  • · Project demos at end of each cycle.
  • · Annual outcomes report, with named partners.
  • · GDPR-compliant data handling for EU donors.
The Fire-Alert Team 5 children · 1 mission Back the team