When Fazle Hasan Abed was admitted to Dhaka College to pursue his studies, I was just born in old Dhaka in 1952.
With few friends in England in 1971, Abed raised funds to provide reliefto refugees fleeing into neighbouring states of India in fear of atrocities committed by marauding Pakistan military.
I first met the nondescript person,when I droppedin at my heydays friend Syed Faizur Rahman's parental home in 1974, where Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC)opened its office in the ground floor in later 1973 at 3 New Circular Road, Magbazar, Dhaka.
Soon after the war ended in December 1971, the BRAC office was housed at Magbazar for more than a decade and a half, until the office moved next door where the present Aarong outlet is situated.
The head office shifted to a new venue at Moakhali in 1978 where the present BRAC University campus is located. Finally,the head office shifted to BRAC Centre, possibly the largest NGO office building in Bangladesh.
Both Faiz and I were student of Jagannath College. On holiday I went to meet him. He went inside an office on the ground floor to share a message from his mother Mahera Rahman with hernew tenant - BRAC.
There I met the lean and thin, dark skin Fazle Hasan Abed. His body language showedlots of excitement but was not exhausted working 24/7. Apparently, I did not have any understanding of his job, his organisation.
I was told by Faiz that he was extremely preoccupied with coordinating a small-scale relief and rehabilitation project to help rehabilitate returning war refugees.BRAC's journey actually began in 1972 after undertaking relief operation in his native village at Shallah Upazila in the district of Sunamganj in the Sylhet region.
In fact, I met him a couple of times more when I visited Faiz. We exchanged pleasantries and saw him mobbed by foreign journalists. Also, expat aid volunteers and officials of international donor organizations crowded around Abed.
The aid agencies were insisting BRAC take additional relief operations for providing succour to millions of refugees returning home from temporary camps in India, as well as internally displaced persons (IDA)who found that their homes and properties were ravaged and cattle stolen by Pakistan army and by their henchmen, the Razakars.
A few months later I realized that he was one of the greatest personalities Bangladesh has given birth to a proud citizen. He sold his house in London, cash-out from bank accounts, borrowed money from friends and well-wishers, packed his bag and reached Kolkata, the headquarter of exiled Bangladesh government.
The home-coming refugees did not have enough resources to rebuild their homes. They also didnot have the ability to return to their farming, as plows and cattle were looted.
Similarly, the fishing community found their boats and fishing nets damaged by the Pakistan army recruited militiawho roamed the villages and town in search of pro-independence supporters and particularly the Hindus.BRAC could provide rebuilding 14 thousand homes, several hundred fishing boats in nine months, as well as opening medical centres and providing other essential services.
Abed established BRACout of nothing and became a world leader. He has a chequered life.From a Naval Architect in London to chief of BRAC, the world's largestdevelopment organisation based in Bangladesh in terms of employees and an annual global expenditure budget exceeding $1 billion.
BRAC works in all 64 districts of Bangladesh as well as 11 other countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. BRAC is one of the few development organisations based in the global south that operates worldwide.The NGO spread its wings and established BRAC University, BRAC Bank, Aarong dairy,Aarong handicrafts retail stores and the world's largest mobile money platform, bKash.
BRAC was globally lauded for its women's empowerment, non-formal education, and campaign to teach mothers how to prepare oral rehydration solution (ORS) from available ingredients to fight diarrhoeal deaths of children.
In rare honour in March 2010, Abed was knighted in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London by Queen Elizabeth in recognition of his services in reducing poverty in Bangladesh and internationally.Global accolades for Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of BRAC, in fact, raised Bangladesh's image at high esteem.
Three decades later in 1991, he recognised me at a selection board of Washington DC based Ashoka, which recognises social entrepreneurs. The board selected me for Ashoka Fellowship for agenda-setting journalism.
He was undergoing treatment for a malignant brain tumor and the nation is sorry to let him go at the age of 83.Saleem Samad is an independent journalist, media rights defender, also recipient of Ashoka Fellow (USA) and Hellman-Hammett Award
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