Staff Correspondent

BRAC University celebrated the 88th birthday of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, KCMG through a photo exhibition and the planting of trees on its Merul Badda campus in Dhaka on Sunday.

Born on April 27, 1936 in Baniachong village of Habiganj district, Sir Fazle founded BRAC, one of the largest NGOs in the world operating across 11 countries in Africa and Asia. Its primary objectives are to alleviate poverty and empower the poor.

The exhibition featured photos highlighting significant moments of Sir Fazle’s lifetime, starting from the time he returned to a newly-independent Bangladesh after the Liberation War to establish BRAC in order to address the needs of the refugees.

The photos also depict moments of his engagements with people living in poverty to develop their own capacity to better manage their lives and times he had been honored with numerous national and international awards for his outstanding contributions towards the development of Bangladesh.

Professor Syed Mahfuzul Aziz, Acting Vice Chancellor of BRAC University, and Lady Syeda Sarwat Abed, Senior Director of the BRAC Institute of Languages, inaugurated this exhibition in the morning. Teachers and students of different departments and senior officials were present.

“Through this exhibition we remember the contributions of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. Let the path shown by him be the path we walk on today, that is our wish,” said Syed Mahfuzul Aziz.

“Sir Fazle was an unassuming and very humble man. He has worked for the people and for quality education throughout his life. This new campus is a realization of his dream. He wanted to create a campus where students could have an extraordinary experience,” said Lady Syeda Sarwat Abed.

The initiative to plant trees was to augment Sir Fazle’s commitment towards environmental conservation alongside his vision which had led to the construction of the innovative and sustainable inner-city Merul Badda campus.

Tamara Hasan Abed, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of BRAC University, along with other members of the Board of Trustees and students of various departments planted the trees, raising public awareness for slowing down climate change and tackling the ongoing heat wave across the country.

Sir Fazle founded BRAC University in 2001 to be a role model for the creation of knowledge, world-class teaching, research and empathy. He breathed his last in Dhaka on 20 December 2019."