Drishtipat Blog

It was a beautiful evening at the lawn of liberation war museum. The program marked a milestone in Bhobodoho project implementation. The money raised for the water logged students of Bhobodoho area to help them sit for the HSC exam was handed over to the local partner of Drishtipat, Daily Jugantor. The simple but very rich program was arranged by DP’s partner Ain o Shalish kendro and DP BUET chapter. Jugantor, in turn, will with the help of their local forum will hand over the money to respective students.

Guests singing the national anthem. Standing L to R Dr Jafor Iqbal, Dr Yasmin Haq, ASK activist, Mrs Mashud, General Hasan Mashud, Jugantor editor Golar Sarwar, Jugantor Deputy editor S Sardar, Political leader Shirin Akhter.

Lively discussion.

Check handover.

The audience.

More details from Ashfaq

The program started off at exactly 6:30 p.m.
6:30 - National Anthem - the full national anthem - the lady from ASK was
amazing. Brilliantly done
6:33 - Tanim’s intro on the program. Since I checked the script he wrote - it
was good.
6:36 - Rumi bhai’s speech - gave a very brief description of Dristipat and its
history. Precise and short.
6:39 - Roney bhai’s speech - touched on the DP Va chapter and its efforts.
mentioned what was the original goals, acknowledged BUET, BRAC, Chetona.
Described the fund raising and future efforts.
6:53 - Documentary - was a very good demonstration
6:57 - Baikuntha Bihari Ray’s speech. His speech to me sounded genuine and
touched the real problems with very real examples.
7:07 - Shukriti Mondol - A coordinator of Bhobodoho nagorik shonghoti Parisad.
just told us what has been done by them.
7:09 - Zafar Iqbal - gave a short and witty description on what he has seen and
what should be done for the people Bhobodoho.
7:16 - Lt. gen. Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury - a mere two minutes that covered what
we can do, what we must not expect others do. very short but very precise.
7:18 - cheque handover - Golam Sarwar, SKC, MZI, HMC was present on the stage.
7:20 - Golam Sarwar - touched on a few points of how the money was going to be
distributed.
7:25 - SKC - Concluded the program by thanking everyone and asked all involved
to stay true to the goals that have been set.
7:30 - Conclusion of the program.

Reporters from Janakantha, Channel I, Dailiy Star, Sangbad, Jugantor were
present.

Asif Says:
February 17th, 2007 at 12:34 pm

Well done rumi bhai, Ashfaq, roney and team in Dhaka for organizing this program which sounds wonderful. Will send a separate email to the Sultana Kamal and Zafar Iqbal.

Organizing the fundraising:

This has been a culmination of many people’s and organization’s effort over the past few months. Starting from the article by Muhammad Zafar Iqbal to Shuchinta’s sending a couple of BRAC students there to Drishtipat Virginia’s taking up the effort and BUET students plunging in with help and images from Chetona. Drishtipat members then got involved by donating themselves and getting their friends to donate. Eventually Ain O Shalish Kendro and Jugantor’s helping us out with the implementation. Abhijit and team will have plenty to add I am sure and please do. Thanks to everyone in the bhobodoho mailing list as well.

The whole project in pictures:

Slideshow

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drishtipat/sets/72157594540723032/show/

For people in Dhaka with slower connection:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drishtipat/sets/72157594540723032/

What next?

Lastly, on bhobodoho, what we did was very little and symbolic.
Bhobodoho is turning out to be a big national disaster that requires government attention from the highest level. We hope such publicity and awareness will help the government to take more direct action. You will have to read the following article in Prothom Alo that came out two days ago to understand the full extent of the damage.

http://www.prothom-alo.org/archive/news_details_mcat.php?dt=2007-02-15&issue_id=164&cat_id=4&nid=MjU1NzQ=&mid=NA==

So the work is not quite over. Abhijit, the writer Rubaet Ferdous, whose email is on this article will be a good person to follow up with for you and he is a good person to be in our network as well. I am sure you guys will keep us posted on the progress on the resolution of the issue.

But this project has open up many new doors with a potential chapter with the BUET students who are talking to Rumi bhai in Dhaka now. Rumi bhai really thanks for getting started with the DP - BUET chapter.
I hope the BUET alumni from the DP mailing list also work as mentors to them.

Well done all of you.

Abhijit Says:
February 17th, 2007 at 2:18 pm

Thanks Rumi Bhai and DP BUET for helping in organizing this event.

I am looking forward to DP BUET formation. Rumi Bhai keep me updated on this issue.

So Says:
February 19th, 2007 at 5:30 am

Well done to all concerned for putting together the event and for providing awareness about an issue that really needed to be raised. A truly commendable effort.