Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder of BRAC a Bangladesh-based NGO has been knighted in the UK for empowering the poor in his country and globally, the first Bangladeshi-origin person to be conferred the honour.
At a brief ceremony at the Buckingham Palace, on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles conferred the knighthood on Mr. Fazle, appointing him Knight Commander of the Most distinguished Order of St Michael and St George.
He is the first person of Bangladesh origin to be honoured with a knighthood by the British Crown since 1947.
Prince Charles told Sir Fazle “I have known your work. It has been long time you have been working for the poverty alleviation. I am aware of it and glad to see you.”
Replying to felicitations at a function Sir Fazle said last evening: “It is an honour nice to have. It is an honour to the organisation and the 120,000 staff. They will feel happy and honoured and commit themselves to work more in the future.”
Today, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee has grown to become the world’s largest NGO employing more than 120,000 people, the majority of which are women, and reaching more than 110 million people with development interventions in Asia and Africa.
Currently BRAC has country programmes in Afghanistan, Liberia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Southern Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda.
