The literal meaning of chakma word Moanoghar is ‘hill home’. It is used to describe the temporary shafts that people living in the hilly regions build upon their fields to store the harvest. Moanoghar is used to store the harvest for first six months and later, people go back to their villages with the crops for the later six months.
A group of enlightened and socially engaged Buddhist monks along with some devotees established Moanoghar, an orphanage at Rangapani area under the Rangamati municipality in 1974. It was founded to provide care and shelter to the poor, destitute children from the Chittagong Hill Tracts region. Later in 1980, to provide modern education to the orphan and destitute children Moanoghar Onath Ashram Abasik Bidyalay ("MoanogharResidential School") in Rangapani was founded. The founder was Prajananda Mahathera. The creation of Moanoghar is the response of two shattering events that adversely affected the indigenous peoples, especially the children, of the CHT—construction of the hydroelectric dam (1962) at Kaptai and the Liberation War (1971) in which Bangladesh achieved independence from Pakistan.
Moanoghar played significant role in the mid-70s. It was araging period in which indigenous villagers suffered greatly, with massacres on both sides. Likewise hundreds of traumatized children suffered from physical injury and loss of family members. At that time, Moanoghar was the only safe haven for that hundreds of children.
At present, The Moanoghor is one of the most traditional institutions of Chittagong Hill Tracts. In fact, gradually school has turned out to be one of the desired destinations for education to hundreds of children from the remote and inaccessible areas of the CHT Here, underprivileged ethnic children from the three Hill Tracts area come to study. The school gained accreditation as a High School from the Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board of Comilla in 1982. For over the last four decades, Moanoghar is standing as a lighthouse in the hills of the CHT region According to the Moanoghar authorities,about 1,300 students are currently studying at the MoanogharResidential School. Around 700 students belong to the ethnicity of Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Tanchangya, Chak, Bawm, Lusai, Pankua and other different areas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. There are administration buildings, classrooms for primary- and secondary-school students, and separate dormitories for boys and girls. Each dormitory has from 25 to over 50 students, and is assigned a house tutor to take care of the children and to help them with their studies. The vision of Moanoghar is, to help the “disadvantaged and marginalized communities of the Chittagong Hill Tracts have access to the basic service necessary to give them a secure future, and in which the various cultural traditions of its people can be shared and cherished” Moanoghar´s mission is, to work with the poor and marginalized indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Moanoghar works to provide formal education, vocational training, health services and support for the overall socio-economic development of its students in the area and of the wider community. In addition to these priorities, Moanoghar aspires to promote and preserve indigenous culture and to act as a symbol of communal harmony to the wider community.
However, due to financial issues this traditional institution is facing many problems. Moanoghor runs on the funds it receives from its own income-generating programs and some other organizations. But, to provide quality education as well as other facilities like daily meals, stationery store, bakery, a weaving and computer training center the amount this institution gets is not actually enough. Specifically, the technological support isvery much needed. A member of Moanoghor executivecommittee says, “To reconcile with technical knowledge, we need a technical school. We see a dream that the CHT children will come here and cultivate their minds through technical education and go back to their homes or workplace with the light of knowledge.” At the same time, in this institution disadvantaged children of the remote areas and the children from the orphanage come to study. It is also quite impossible for their parents to arrange for other sources of education for their children. Therefore, Moanoghor is dealing with quite a dilemma.
The symbol ‘Lighthouse’ stands for strength, safety and individuality. The Moanoghor is called the lighthouse of Chittagong Hill Tracts. Because like the lighthouse to-date this institution has been playing very important role in our society by providing shelter, education, food to the destitute and helpless children. But for some mentioned above obstacles it has become quite difficult to continue on it’s own. So, this institution needs strong professional management to run the facility, proper funding from both domestic sources and foreign donor agencies, including the government support etc.
Written by Dipita Chakma
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