Syed Shah Salim Ahmed
Bangladesh is a country where more than 16 million peoples living. Most of them are poor and one-third of them are very poor or low less income. Some of them are lives by hand to mouth. But now the country`s economy is moving rapidly and its education also growing. Peoples are now engaging education, health, modern sanitation facilities, using technologies and they are doing in various economic activities. The private sector like NGO`s are doing driving force of these activities and peoples are very much concerned about NGO`s rather local council services. Because of easy access and no red tape including the absence of middle man commission, long processing(especially government officers are taking too many times to clear filing etc.). In terms of unusual or unsociable behaviour like as turmoil situation of Governments offices and the local council, NGO`s are much easy and faster to deliver the services to the poor people including micro finances. And among the NGO`s activities in a rural area of Bangladesh BRAC is a unique name of them. However, it was not easy to do to deliver the services to the community and local peoples at first while BRAC started operation in Bangladesh.
Soon after founding BRAC in 1972, it’s focusing on the social and economic empowerment of women, which was a new, breakthrough approach to lifting them out of poverty. In addition to micro-credit programs that provided small loans to women, BRAC launched a sustainable agriculture project in Bangladesh based on poultry farming. “Two decades later, the poultry project involved 1.9 million women, and had managed to establish commercial and social linkages that connected local activities to the wider national economy, and introduced women to the experience of making real profits”( Source: WEF). According to the recorded history, BRAC now operates in more than 69 thousand villages of Bangladesh and covers an estimated 110 million people through its development interventions that range from primary education, essential healthcare, agricultural support and human rights and legal services to microfinance and enterprise development. And even more its performance like magic because of success rate 100% as local government authority also agreed as well as BRAC track records stated.
Britain`s top daily the Guardian reported, Today, it has a staff of 110,000 and works in 11 countries across the world, including Afganistan, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Liberia. Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Haiti beside Bangladesh, that means BRAC successfully adapting its unique integrated development model across the cross-countries geographic and socioeconomic contexts.
Among these success stories and entire BRAC context successfully implemented into the community including global village- he is the man of our pride Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. He is the founder of BRAC. Was an NGO now BRAC is a unique global Brand who is working in education, social context, women’s empowerment including cultural aspects etc. Sir Abed and Brac are visionary exemplary unique theme-which can change poor out of the poverty and this micro formula is working condition into the global market as well as a home country (Bangladesh). Sir Abed has proved this.
Very recently Sir Abed has been awarded the 2015 World Food Prize for his “unparalleled” work on reducing poverty in Bangladesh and 10 other countries. Even before, he was knighted by the British Crown in 2009.
In a nutshell, he has a very colourful background, where he can be easily enjoying his life with lavish luxury way rather change poor peoples out of poverty. But he chooses a very challenging job, where he has proven and his jobs are very commendable to the global village as well as Bangladesh. ” Fazle Hasan Abed was born into a distinguished family in 1936 in Baniachong, in Bangladesh’s Habiganj district. His maternal grandfather was a minister in the colonial government of Bengal; a great-uncle was the first Bengali to serve in the governor of Bengal’s executive council. He attended Pabna Zilla School and went on to complete his higher secondary education at Dhaka College. Sir Abed attended the University of Glasgow in
Scotland where he studied naval architecture. He then pursued further education and a career path in accounting, graduating from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in London in 1962. Abed returned to his homeland in 1969, accepting a position with the Shell Oil Company in Chittagong. In just two years, he was promoted to head of the company’s accounting department and was living the comfortable lifestyle of a corporate executive” (Notes from the world food prize, edited). But this was not the right path of his vision as he was always thinking to do something for the poor people of the country and later he formed his Breakthrough NGO BRAC.
World Food Prize selection committee mentioned that Abed is a “Strategic thinker and a man with a future vision”. This is perfect for Sir Abed. He is like a visionary who changes poor people’s lifestyle to come out the poverty or below poverty. Bangladesh has so many problems and peoples are struggling continues. It has flood, poverty, political turmoil, law and order causing etc. but the country has tremendous success story by the people. What so ever the problems and pragmatic situation, but we have some legendary like Sir Abed and they have some vision rather greedy politicians and bureaucrats. We salute Sir Abed and pray to Allah for his long life.
salim932@googlemail.com
2015
