Fazle Hasan Abed

This Bangladeshi social worker is married to Sarwat Abed—the couple have a son, Shameran and a daughter, Tamara.

Fazle Hasan Abed was born to Siddiq Hasan and Syeda Sufya Khatun on April 27, 1936, in Baniachong, which is now called Habiganj, Bangladesh.

He pursued his secondary education from 'Pabna Zilla School', Bangladesh, and graduated twelfth grade from 'Dhaka College'. The young boy took up a course in Naval Architecture from the 'University of Glasgow' in Scotland.

Since constructing ships was not a feasible career option in his hometown, he continued his studies at the 'Chartered Institute of Management Accountants' in London, graduating in 1962.

On his return to Bangladesh, he started working for 'Shell Oil Company' and soon was promoted to the post of 'Head of Finance Division'.

During the partition of East Bengal and Pakistan, he fled to England, and established 'Action Bangladesh', an effort to seek support in his country's fight for independence. After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, Abed returned home, to find the country economically drained. Moreover Bangladeshi refugees were returning from India, and they had to be rehabilitated.

For this reason, the passionate social worker used all his savings to establish an NGO called ‘BRAC’, in the year 1972. Initially ‘BRAC’ stood for ‘Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee’, which later became ‘Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee’.

In 1981, this passionate philanthropist became a visiting scholar for ‘Harvard Institute of International Development’. The next year, he was appointed as a member of the ‘Board of Trustees’ for the ‘Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies’. He was also made the chairman of the ‘Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh’.

This famous benefactor became a member of the ‘World Bank NGO Committee’ at Geneva, Switzerland, in 1986. The following year he was appointed a member of the ‘International Commission on Health Research for Development’, Harvard University, in USA.

Fazle Abed is known for founding the NGO called BRAC in 1972, which aims at providing support to the poor, especially women living below the poverty line. The organization reaches out to more than 69 thousand villages in Bangladesh, and has recently started its developmental work in Afghanistan, and the underdeveloped countries of Africa.

BRAC provides support in the areas of education, healthcare, microfinance, agriculture, and human rights. The NGO founded by this social worker, was awarded the ‘Swadhinata Puroshkar’, which is the most prestigious honour in Bangladesh.