BRAC celebrates its 50th anniversary at Houses of Parliament
Earlier this month we celebrated our 50th anniversary at the Houses of Parliament in London, where we were joined by over 150 partners and friends of BRAC.
We were fortunate to have speeches and participation from:
- Chris Law MP, who was also our gracious host for the evening.
- Lewis Temple, Chief Executive of BRAC’s London Office
- Her Excellency Saida Muna Tasneem, Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to the UK, Ireland and Liberia, who stated “The government of Bangladesh and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stands next to BRAC. We are with BRAC and we will always be with BRAC.” (Watch speech)
- Asif Saleh, Executive Director at BRAC Bangladesh, and Shameran Abed, Executive Director at BRAC International and Baroness Minouche Shafik, President and Vice Chancellor of the London School of Economics and Political Science, as moderator.
(Watch panel discussion) - Scott MacMillan, the author of Hope Over Fate: the wonderful newly published biography of our late founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed.
- A troupe of dancers from Akademi who performed traditional Bengali dances. Their upcoming show Pravass will take place in May and share stories of the climate-driven migration of people from the Sundarbans mangrove forest in India and Bangladesh.
- A special video address from Andrew Mitchell, the Minister for Development and Africa at the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), who highlighted the long-standing partnership between BRAC and the UK: “Together, we have helped improve the lives of millions of people through our support for your rural development programme over four decades.”
Key quotes from the event:
“Together, we have helped improve the lives of millions of people through our support for your rural development programme over four decades.” – Andrew Mitchell, the Minister for Development and Africa at the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
“The government of Bangladesh and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stands next to BRAC. We are with BRAC and we will always be with BRAC.” – Her Excellency Saida Muna Tasneem, Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to the UK, Ireland and Liberia
“Investing in local organisations pays off, and BRAC is a big example of that.” – Asif Saleh, Executive Director at BRAC Bangladesh
“The need to understand both economic and social needs of people living in poverty is one thing that BRAC learned early on. Making sure that women are the catalysts for change within their families, and within their communities, that’s also something that’s been very critical to BRAC’s work.” – Shameran Abed, Executive Director at BRAC International
Now that the 50th Anniversary year has officially come to a close, we look forward to a bright future and 50 more transformative and impactful years for the BRAC family.
You can view our video summary of the event to get a feel for the celebrations.