FOOTBALL TRAINING HOSTEL FOR SCHOOL GIRLS, LOCATED IN A FLOOD ZONE IN RANGAMATI, CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS (CHT), BANGLADESH.
Ghagra High School is located in the Rangamati district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh. Described as “the cradle of women’s footballers,” it produces outstanding players including some in the national team. But their hostel is in a state of ruin. Situated beside a river, it floods every monsoon, the waters rising to waist deep.
The school urgently needs a new hostel building so the players can continue to train and excel within an architecture which promotes their safety and well being, meets their needs, and is sensitive to the local and social context. We are advocating on the school’s behalf to gather national and international funding/support. Get in touch if you wish to contribute to the campaign.
ENDORSEMENTS
“I wholeheartedly support this brilliant campaign to build a new football training hostel for the talented girls at Ghagra High School in Rangamati. These young athletes are overcoming floods, discrimination, and immense challenges to excel in sport and inspire their nation. It's initiatives like this that promote equality, resilience, and opportunity for underrepresented communities - values that are close to my heart from my own experiences in cricket. Please rally behind them to create a safe, sustainable space where their dreams can thrive.”
Azeem Rafiq, English County Cricketer & Campaigner for Meaningful Change in Sport. Azeem Rafiq is a British Asian cricketer who played professionally for Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC).
THE SCHOOL
Ghagra: Where dreams rise from dust for Bangladesh women's football.
TBS news
The school is in urgent need
“Since a major part of the national women's football team comes from this very school, it is now imperative to design special plans for Ghagra. This school is functioning like a football academy, producing promising players, yet it lacks every facility an academy should have."
TBS news
Source: Ritu Porna Chakma Instagram @rp.chakma
Flooded pitch. Torn boots. Little help. Yet Ghagra keeps producing champions.
TBS news
THE SITE
NIGHT SKY AROUND GHAGRA HIGH SCHOOL, DECEMBER 2025. Credit: Tamzid
PROPOSAL
The project proposes to:
1. Build a new hostel and associated facilities.
2. Advocate for the school to be nationalised.
“Despite all the adversities, girls from the hill districts are consistently pushing the boundaries to earn repute and make the nation proud.” TBS news.
FOOTBALL HOSTEL FOR SCHOOL GIRLS, RANGAMATI, BANGLADESH
Watch film on YouTube
REQUIREMENTS
1. New hostel building (with associated facilities).
2. New kitchen & dining.
3. New classroom (to replace existing broken classroom).
Designing in collaboration with the footballers, the school, and its community, and through gathering their construction methods, stories, hopes, and dreams, the intention is to create an architecture of the poetic imagination, sensitive to both the fragility and the strength of the land and its people.
THE EXISTING BUILDING
THE CONTEXT
The CHT region has the largest forest cover in Bangladesh and is facing rapid environmental changes. Environmental and political struggles intertwine here. Indigenous peoples have been subject to discrimination, ethnic cleansing, dispossession, and human rights violations for decades.
Credit: Imran Hossain Imu, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
Credit: Amnesty International