𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐂: 𝐒𝐢𝐫 𝐀𝐛𝐞𝐝
The founder of BRAC, the largest non-governmental organization in the world, is Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, a social activist from Bangladesh. He oversaw Brac as its chairman. For his excellent work in social development, he has received awards such as the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Award, the UNDP Mahbub ul Haq Award, the World Food Prize, etc. The British government knighted him in honor of his outstanding contributions to the eradication and empowerment of poverty.
On April 27, 1936, Fazle Hasan Abed was born in Baniachang in the Habiganj district, Sylhet, Bangladesh. He was one of eight children born to Siddiq Hasan and Syeda Sufia Khatun, members of the Hasan family, a Bengali Muslim Zamindar family.
The entire family of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed was educated. In Habiganj, Fazle Hasan Abed began his studies. He attended Habiganj Government High School from third to sixth grade. Later, just before partition, his father's paralysis forced him to relocate from Habiganj to his rural home in Baniachong. He was therefore granted admission to Cumilla District School at his uncle's place of employment. He attended there for his seventh and eighth grades. He also relocated to Pabna with his uncle after his uncle was appointed District Judge there and He was enrolled at Pabna District School as well.
Sir Abed completed his SSC there in 1952. He was admitted to the physics department at Dhaka University in 1954 after completing his HSC. But in October 1956, he enrolled in Naval Architecture at Glasgow University in Scotland without finishing his education there. However, Sir Abed soon discovered that the Naval Academy's facilities were neither in Bangladesh nor East Pakistan while he was still a student there in Scotland. Therefore, studying this subject won't lead to a particularly successful profession in the future. Having this realization, he moved to London. He applied there for admission to the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. And in 1962, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed finished his professional degree in cost management accounting.
After arriving home, Sir Abed joined the East Pakistan Cell Oil Company's Finance Department. And a few days later, he was promoted to head the financial division. When he was employed by this company in 1970, a powerful hurricane struck Bangladesh's coastal region. This cyclone caused harm to many people, including fatalities. Even as a company official, he could not remain mute when witnessing such people's suffering. Instead, he and his companions established the "HELP" organization with their own money and launched relief efforts on Manpura Island.
When war broke out in the country in 1971, he left the company and moved to London. From there, he committed himself to influence public opinion in the outside world on behalf of Bangladesh. For this purpose, he created an organization called "Action Bangladesh". At that time, under the banner of this organization, Sir Abed continued the main public opinion formation and fundraising work in Europe for Bangladesh. After the war, he returned to the country on January 17, 1972. He started working in areas affected by war after returning to Bangladesh, providing aid and rehabilitation. Even his own London apartment was sold to help finance this project. And for the proper management of this relief and rehabilitation program, Sir Abed formed an organization named "BRAC". He was extremely upset to see people residing in Sylhet's Shalla's ruins after the war. He made the decision to begin his work there after arriving. To provide relief and rehabilitation for the impoverished and defenseless proletarians of independent Bangladesh, the "Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistant Committee," or "BRAC," was established by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. In 1973, when BRAC started working as a development organization beyond the constraints of temporary relief programs, the abbreviation of BRAC was - "Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee".
Photo: rafesadnanadel
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