When I first met Fred Hyde in 1995, he had already been running five of his schools for some four years. We featured him on the front cover of the 1995 Pocket Book.

Some 20 years later, in 2015, over 12,000 Bangladeshi children are attending the 41 schools and 6 kindergartens that Fred has established. Fred has even established a teacher training facility. Some 70,000 children have gone on to be become knowledgeable and productive individuals.

This number of primary schools and students is nearly double the number of the 25 primary state schools in the region of the Southern Darling Downs; including Warwick, Stanthorpe, Inglewood, Texas, Killarney and Allora.

Fred said to me, something like: "For all these children, this is the first time anyone in generations of their family history has had an education".

Queensland Senior of the Year

Campbell & Fred; with Fred obviously telling a good joke.

Mr Hyde, OA, was selected as Queensland Senior of the Year within the Australian of the Year Awards, awarded to him by then Premier Campbell Newman in October 2014.

Fred had worked for several years previous to 1991 helping charities in India, but he felt that Bangladesh was in more desperate need. In 1991 he set up CO-ID or Co-Operation In Development coincidentally the same year my wife and I started the first Southern Downs Pocket Book. As we enter 2016, we both celebrate 25 years.

RSL 2015 Peace Prize for Australia

Fred has always felt a very deep commitment to the memory of his mates killed and injured in the battles of the Second World War. He says he 'never forgets' them.

Rear Admiral Ken Doolan, the national president of the Returned Services League, announced on 20th April 2015 that Fred had been honoured as the winner of the national 2015 RSL Peace Prize.

He said: "Mr Hyde was selected by the RSL Anzac Awards Committee for the award in recognition of over three decades of philanthropic work rescuing and educating orphaned and abandoned children in Bangladesh. He exemplifies the spirit of the Anzac within the broader community through his dedication and commitment to others."

He was nominated for the Peace Prize by the Warwick RSL Sub-Branch, whose president, John Skinner, said almost everyone in Warwick knows what Fred has achieved. The sub-branch was really excited that he had won the major (Australia wide) award.

Fred is 95 this year, but he still spent some six months on Bhola Island in the Ganges delta in Bangladesh, personally paying his own way and own travel. His organisation, Co-operation-in-Development (CO-ID) is run by friends and volunteers from Warwick and more recently, from many parts of Australia.

Fred retired as an engineer at the age of about 60, with his wartime experience, years of practical work on farms and in the workshop coming in handy during his retirement.

The Wonderful Warwick Workers

Many would remember Herb Self in the early days arranging and collecting the funds, there have been a string of tireless workers in Warwick working behind the scenes. Well-known local Geraldine O'Neill the current treasurer, Kathy Mullis the secretary, and Dr Olav Muurlink, formerly editor of the Free Times and now an academic at Central Queensland University as chair of the management committee.

Many Australian donors adopt a CO-ID school, raising the $8,000 needed each year to run the school and pay the teachers and look after the school's usual 300 students.

A pre-school is built for $7,000 and then run for about $2,500 per year. Even though their aim is an enrolment of 50 at these kindergartens, sometimes 100 children are enrolled.

Many firms, including Pocket Books, make a cash donation and/or provide some advertising (see 'Clubs') gratis, or other in-kind gestures. Another great example is the Warwick RSL which prints the newsletters free of charge. Much money is left in bequests. We all know that with less than 2% of administration costs, the schools and students are the beneficiaries.

The CO-ID committee (above) is Fred Hyde; Olav Muurlink, Chair; Tony Kent, Deputy Chair; Len Willett, Deputy Chair; Geraldine O'Neill, Treasurer; Kathy Mullis, Secretary; Committee members Rod Mulliss, Pat O'Leary, Shirley Owens, Borhan Shafi, Sue Walpole, Iqbal Faruque, John Waterhouse, Anne Blunt, Cath Beaumont plus supporters.
From: http://www.fredhyde.org/who-runs-coid

Map of Bangladesh (above)

Map of Bhola Island (above)

Map of the southern part of Bhola Island with most schools shown.

Note how tightly packed this part of the island is. This area is approximately 20 km by 20 km or 400 sq/km. Look at Map G in this Pocket Book, this is equivalent to about the right hand G Map.

The whole of Bhola Island is about 30 km by 70 km, or 2,000 km sq (just three of Pocket Book's double map pages for country areas), and has some 2.5 million people – half of Queensland's population.

CO-ID schools

1 Five Doors
2 Mainuddin
3 West Huzzrigonj
4 Islamia
5 Char Jamuna
6 East Jahanpur
7 Morhab
8 N/E Manika
9 South Manika
10 Uttar Char Maya
11 Vashan Char
12 Dokin Aicha
13 Dokin Fakira
14 Char Nalua
15 Choni Char
16 Modium Fakira
17 N/E Rusalpur
18 South Jahanpur
19 Uttar Modhom Char
20 West Ahmedpur
21 West Jahanpur
22 Dokin Faridabad
23 Middle Char Aicha
24 New Huzzrigonj
25 New Rusalpur
26 Monohur
27 South Majar Char
28 Uttar Char Malmi
29 Char Ar Kalmi
30 Nangla Pata
31 Uttar Mongal
32 S/W Faridabad
33 S/E Mongal
34 Middle Monohur
35 West Nilkamal
36 East Nurabad
37 Char Horish
38 West Awaz Pur
39 Abdullah Pur
40 Nazrul Nagar
41 Mojib Nagar

CO-ID pre-schools

1 East Jahanpur
2 N/E Manika
3 South Manika
4 Char Nalua
5 Modium Fakira
6 West Ahmedpur

Education for both girls and boys, CO-ID charity believes in a fair go.

In Australia, having a fair go is something we all take for granted. Other parts of the world such as Bhola Island aren't as lucky, but times are changing.

CO-ID brings more than education to the developing world. Over the years, Fred Hyde has developed friendly and co-operative relationships with the Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian sectors of the community, so CO-ID schools are welcomed by the Bangladeshi Government as a positive "foreign" initiative.

Education for all

Fred is overcoming the perception that education is wasted on girls and provides equal opportunities to both sexes in the classroom. Importantly, his studies show that where CO-ID schools have been built, not only have literacy and numeracy levels risen, but population growth has begun to slow.

After operating in Bangladesh for over 25 years, he is now able to show that graduates of CO-ID schools, through access to education, mature to have markedly smaller families. This is a finding that is supported by wider research.

CO-ID is helping to make Bangladesh more liveable, with each school forming a nucleus around which thriving businesses and industries are established.

How Fred Organises the Building of a New School

From a third world perspective, CO-ID builds schools only with the support of the local community. When there is strong enough interest and demand for a CO-ID school (and there always is!) in a community on Bhola Island, you can see how we start and finish.

In just a few short months, a new CO-ID charity school can be up and running, bringing the world of education to three hundred children every day.

With the CO-ID new education programs and training schemes for pre-school to pre-teen, the future is looking more positive than ever.

A committee is formed to progress the school project. A public meeting is held with the people recorded and their thumb prints taken. They pass a resolution to ask CO-ID to build a school. CO-ID then inspects the area and gives the OK to go ahead.

Community has to find 1/2 acre of land, sometimes done with a fair amount of land exchange. People move along to different pieces of land to bring together small bits of spare land into the 1/2 acre site. (A half acre is approximately 2,000 sq metres.)

The community then builds up the land above flood height and digs the holes for the foundations.

CO-ID then brings in all the materials, carpenters and other skills to build the school. The community provides men to help get materials to the site, and with CO-ID supervision and staff, builds the school and fits it out. A small community committee is formed to run the school and opens a bank account. To do this they have to locate 3 people in the community who can sign their own names, which in itself can sometimes be challenge. Each month enough is paid from the CO-ID charity bank account into the local account to cover the teachers' salary.

The community committee pays the teachers from this CO-ID fund and makes sure that the kids go to school regularly and that the teachers are doing all that is needed for the children.

CO-ID runs a monthly meeting of all the CO-ID teachers on Bhola Island, to keep the education program moving forward.

The committee also organises kids' sports days and community use of the school building (the building is used for immunisation programs, as polling stations at elections etc)

CO-ID inspects the schools, checks the children's exam results and ensures that CO-ID standards are maintained.

Fred Hyde

Warwick has had a hand in Queensland History: from former premier Tom Byrnes to state separation surveyors. Many residents must be thinking of another statue for one of its favourite sons…or the naming of a park.

Contact CO-ID

Email: contact@fredhyde.org

Mail: CO-ID, PO Box 1061
Warwick 4370, Qld, Australia

Phone: 1300 731 916