It was a different day for all concerned as a group of young learners under the banner of Child Journalists' Forum gifted a khata (copy book), a pen and candy to each of the 30 poor children of Bewtha slum in the district town on Thursday. 

The underprivileged kids are enrolled with a local non-formal schooling project run by the Islamic Foundation. 

Monjur Mohammad Shahriar, additional deputy commissioner of Manikganj, also joined the happy occasion, giving attractive pencil boxes to the children. 

The smiling faces of the recipient kids showed how small gifts can mean a big thing and initiate a real change for the better.  

"We took the initiative under our 'One khata one pen' project to prevent poor children's dropout. We will continue our programme to arrange schooling for the poor and deprived children," said Hasan Shikdar, president of the 15-member forum, and an intermediate first year student of Government Devendra College. 

Members of the project, intermediate students Jannatul Ferdous Jui, Abul Hasanat and Al-Jaber and Class IX student Sham-Meem-Jopa Bristi said they collected money for the purpose by saving from the tiffin money that they got from their parents. 

They discussed with the underprivileged children of the slum and exchanged views with their guardians regarding overall development of the kids. 

Welcoming the initiative, ADC Monjur Mohammad Shahriar urged the guardians to send their children to school.