Not charity. A loan.

DANNOY-DHAR is a non-profit, entirely volunteer-run organisation that lends money to university students facing sudden financial hardship.

It began on 24 April 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Jahangirnagar University. The idea is simple: alumni contribute what they can, as a loan or a donation, and students who need help borrow from that fund for a fixed period.

Accepting charity is not easy for everyone, even in real need. Borrowing is easy — there is no room for embarrassment in it. When one person’s loan comes back, it can be lent to the next. In this way a modest sum helps a great many people.

When classes moved online, many students needed to buy a smartphone and could not raise the money at once. Others could not quite afford a decent laptop, or wanted a bicycle, or had to find a large sum quickly for a parent’s medical treatment, or needed help to study abroad, or lost their tutoring income and could not continue their studies. DANNOY-DHAR has stepped forward at each of these moments.

The organisation’s operating cost is zero. Everything runs on voluntary effort. It started with Tk 2,26,000.

We are now beginning in several more departments at Jahangirnagar University and at a medical college. Gradually, as volunteers and funds allow, it will start at other universities and institutions.

To understand the whole picture, please look through this website — especially the feedback and the questions and answers.

If you would like to open a branch in your own university department, or to be involved directly or indirectly in this work, please get in touch with us.