Meet Your Neighbors Who Are Bringing Language Arts To Kensington’s Little Bangladesh
From the outside, the four-story brick monolith on Beverley road at East 5th street looks like every other apartment complex on the block. But venturing inside the basement, I found a vital Bangladeshi community center and two activists working passionately for Kensington’s South Asian community.
Mohammad Mahab and Moinul Alam (aka Bappy), co-founders of the Bangladeshi American Center Of North America (BACONA) and Bound for Success Tutoring Center, practically lit up when they told me about their language and art programs.
Mahab, a Kensington resident since 2000, is a man of many talents; he speaks six languages (Urdu, Bengali, Arabic, Hindi, Punjabi, and English) and is learning a seventh. “I have a couple of friends who speak Spanish and they’re teaching me,” said Mahab, while we sat in his basement office at 415 Bevereley Road. “ It’s very easy, because my father was in the Air Force, as a child I traveled from country to country.”
Bound For Success Tutoring offers group language classes for low rates, with a focus on practical communication. “We realized that the community has a lot of immigrants coming from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and they needed to learn English.”
Both founders have been living and working with residents for over 20 years. “We found that people in our community are having a hard time expressing themselves, especially elder women. So we help them learn basic English so they can talk, go places, acquire suitable jobs,” he said. The language barrier is a debilitating issue for women in the community, and Bappy knows that learning the words is just the first step. “Now we have more programs, we are having a job seminar here, we are helping people fill out job applications and find work.”
Many families have a hard time paying for classes, but they are never turned away. “This community needs a lot of help,” said Bappy.
Bappy and Mahab started BACONA, the non-profit arm of their venture, last year in response to the deficit in after school programs for local kids. “Just think about a family of 5 living in a basement, it affects the kids at an early age, that’s a lot of pressure,” said Bappy. “We always offer help, that is our obligation, both BACONA and Bound For Success are working side by side to respond to the community’s needs.”
BACONA hosts free language, art, and dance programs at their office and at the new Avenue C Plaza. “You have to see what these kids are doing,” Bappy said while running to grab the kids’ drawings. “We have kids of all different nationalities, religions, and languages. And sometimes I just sit back and laugh at how they play together.”
Working with children is also Mahab’s specialty. He teaches computer programs in schools all over the city, and provides translation between parents and administrators at District 22 schools. “I realized that a lot of kids were suffering from mental disorders, autism, and down syndrome. So I went to Brooklyn College and got certified. Now, I see autism in the Bengali and Pakistani communities, especially in families living in low quality environments.”
Despite their success, the organization is struggling financially from supporting families who can’t afford to pay for language classes.
“It’s all come down to one thing,” said Bappy as he lowered his voice and leaned in from his rollaway chair. “Our intention is to give back to the community, and we need the financial support to run this place.”
Mahab and Bappy want their organizations to be a hub for local arts and culture, and a place where residents can ask for help and receive it. They were even first on the scene of the new Avenue C Plaza, “We tried to show the neighborhood what can be done,” said Mahab, “even with such a small space.”
To learn more about BACONA, and opportunities to volunteer with or donate to the program, visit their Facebook page.
