Nuzhat Shahzadi shares her very personal tribute to Abed Bhai

Credit: WISE

Here is what I hope is an honest, personal recount of my relationship with Abed Bhai– the circumstances we lived in and how he inspired me. I cried a lot while drafting it. There was much more but already it's long enough. He was a father figure in my life, for sure.

Warm wishes,


Nuzhat

Our Abed Bhai

Up Close and Personal with Sir Fazle Hasan Abed

Nuzhat Shahzadi

Brac house in Mohakhai, Dhaka stands solemn– the big, impassive, grand skyscraper… The everyday sun hits its magnificent glass walls creating an aura of wonder, as always. Its brilliance can never be the same– Abed Bhai has left the building! The fearless soul is now braving an endless new adventure.


I began working with grass roots organizations in my twenties. In my girlhood, I lived through an impossible war (of liberation); tried to cope with family separation and personal losses; struggled with mindless social, political chaos of a newly born nation, and was pulled headlong into the encompassing harsh realities that embroiled the bewildered Begalees in cyclones, flood and famine, in addition. As a minor, I was powerless to impact my immediate Universe that was crumbling! At that time I had no idea that I would become a humanitarian Aid worker.




But I am proud there were thinkers and fighters in those times of desolation and heartbreaks who emerged to challenge the conditions on the ground and worked fiercely to lessen the sufferings of the most vulnerable. In 1972, Brac was born. “The innovator of the poor,” Fazle Hassan Abed founded this grassroots organization which four decades later has been named as the largest, most effective and meaningful NGO in the world (2019)!




Abed Bhai’s work for the poor began from 1970 after a devastating cyclone killed about 300,000 people in coastal regions of East Pakistan (at present Bangladesh). With a group of friends he created an organization named “HELP” to provide relief and rehabilitation support to the affected. He was forced to leave the country when the war of liberation broke out in 1971. He set up “Action Bangladesh” in UK to lobby with the governments of Europe to garner support for the independence of his motherland. He returned to the newly born Bangladesh in 1972 and the Brac-story began from there.




My path with Abed Bhai crossed several times when I was still very new in the NGO world. I call that existence my “salad days” in development work. I was too junior to be introduced to him. I listened to his voice reaching out to me from the podium– awestruck! Some years later in 1992, I joined Unicef-Dhaka as a consultant and was pulled into the Meena regional project focused on girls’ rights. We were a team of young female consultants that spearheaded the project under the guidance of a male boss


(Neill McKee: off the record, we were too independent spirited or high maintenance– he never attempted to bridle us…). At that time I was formally introduced to Abed– one of my highly esteemed heroes of that era after Mandela and Gandhi (this list has grown bigger now).


Abed Bhai was always for empowering women and especially supported young women in leadership positions in development work. I found it easy to speak with him. We spoke like comrades. By that time, I began training Brac and other partner agencies on Life Skills, and Participatory methods (VIPP) and our paths crossed often at receptions or conferences. Every time I saw him among the attendees, I was compelled to speak to him. He was attentive, always. Never treated me as lesser. We even shared some funny stuff sometimes (I am bad at jokes– Abed Bhai must have laughed inwardly at my poor narration skills). His late second wife Shilu apa was an advisor to the Brac craft store, Aarong. She was a strong patron of Meena commercial products that we sold as a pilot initiative through Aarong (aptly hiding our activities from Peter Mason– NYHQ legal advisor). She sought me out whenever we were at the same events.




In 1993 Unicef’s designs became clear. It was decided that after Rachel Carnegie, the international consultant (and the soul of the Meena Project) left, I was to take over, and be housed in Brac to use its humongous grassroots channels to implement the national phase of the project– ultimately, with Brac’s support turn it into a Foundation. (Neill was leaving Dhaka office as well). Abed Bhai proposed me as a Director of the Unicef-Brac Meena Project but as I was (too!) young (according to Unicef-Dhaka), I was given the designation of “Coordinator.” I was elated beyond imagination…




In January of 1995 with the existing team of three professionals I was transferred to Brac with Meena– lock, stock and barrel. I was on Unicef payroll but worked as a Brac affiliate. Only hitch, I needed prior approval of Unicef–Dhaka to utilize funds. I recruited more staff and the Meena–Brac phase emerged. My story with Abed Bhai actually began from there…




Abed Bhai was my supervisor. As he was extremely busy I was instructed to seek guidance from Dr Salehuddin, Director of Training on day-to-day operation of the project as the intermediary reporting officer, as required. From that time onwards, I never needed a formal appointment to see Abed Bhai in his office. His door was always open to me. His secretary, Najma Apa used to pick up the internal phone and say the magic words every time I waited in front of her desk, “Abed Bhai, Meena is here.” That was my nickname in Brac. In less than a minute, I was ushered in his office.




Right after I moved to Brac, Abed Bhai called me one morning. He said (still remember his words), “Nuzhat, if you want to instill Meena into Brac’s heart you need to rope in two people– Amin Bhai and Faruq Bhai. Check when they’re going to the field. Shadow them.” That was all. He shooed me out of his office as he was expecting a high level international delegation. I knew I couldn’t linger to ask more and also felt proud that he had thrown a challenge to me. That was his way of empowering us.




Both men were very senior. I didn’t think they had ever noticed me– I was no one. Amin Bhai was a formidable character, I was told. He was the head of rural development program (RDP) that empowered millions of women across the nation and for the first time popularized home produced silk thread creating domestic and international markets for this high quality yarn. He was also known as the “poultry man” as Brac introduced home based poultry farming for village women under his watch. In short, he was the microfinance genius whose programs could give us access to thousands of RDP staff and literally millions of program participants (Brac, unlike the UN and many development agencies at the time, discarded the word “beneficiary” as it sounded powerless, smelt of charity). Faruq Choudhury was a retired renown diplomat. A “no nonsense” person.




I went to the field with both men a month later to visit the poultry and silk projects run by non-literate, poor peasant, village women. At five AM sharp each day, I scrambled to the early morning pledge ceremonies of these powerful women’s groups, witnessed for the first time how their hard work and commitment was impacting their lives…I listened to the incredible stories of these indomitable spirits who couldn’t be crushed by cyclones, famine, poverty, domestic violence…my real transformation started from there…earlier I was flirting with development work, I realized in a shock.




Somehow “our little girl”–Meena woke up on the right side of both men’s hearts, I guess. Amin Bhai became the greatest champion of Meena, and Faruq Bhai volunteered to be the Adviser of the project, staunchly advocating for it at every opportunity.




In 1995, out of 365 days I travelled to the field for 200 days with Brac teams to implement Meena. I got a call from Abed Bhai’s office. He had somehow found out. “Everything okay at home, Nuzhat?” he asked gently, reassuring, not prying. He was a very big man by then but his heart always held us. He knew what was happening around him, to us. At that time my personal life was taking a hit– I couldn’t tell him that.




With the change in management in Unicef, a new problem began– a meaningless power struggle. Unicef-Dhaka wanted Meena to succeed but also attempted to clip my wings (sorry to be blunt). By that time Meena was reigning in Brac. Three million handbooks printed by RDP for the program participants included the 18th pledge “Send your girl to school” with the Meena logo. It was popularly known as “Amin Bhai’s Meena Pledge.” All Brac training centers included Meena logo and girls’ rights messages in the learning/training materials…costs sponsored by Brac. Dr Yunus (Grameen Bank) called us (women leaders) at a meeting in his office to ensure women’s participation in the upcoming election through effective mobilization. Abed Bhai sponsored the printing of one million Meena posters, which said, “Maa tumi vote dau, baba kay o shathey nao,” (Mom- cast your vote, bring dad with you). He and I brainstormed together in his office and came up with this slogan. The posters were distributed for field mobilization. Initially my proposal to print the posters was turned down by Unicef-Dhaka so Abed Bhai came to the rescue and instructed the Brac Printing press to give us a free ride (cost was managed from his special fund).




I was gradually getting stressed with Unicef’s micro management style– Brac was empowering me as a leader whereas Unicef-Dhaka was trying to limit me though we had proven we had fully mainstreamed Meena into Brac’s programs. So, heartbroken I went to Abed Bhai to discuss about my resignation from Meena/Unicef- Dhaka. Dr Salehuddin joined us. Abed Bhai didn’t accept my resignation. The new “Brac-house” sky scrapper building was under construction at the time. He showed me the floor plan– the space allocated for the “Meena Foundation.” Then together they told me to go back and fight, fight, fight…fight for Meena– our little girl…for all the little girls.




“Don’t give up so easily, Nuzhat,” he said, calmly, smoking his pipe, with a smile– the designs on his crisp silk shirt glistened… (he was fond of wearing silk shirts). Nothing ever perturbed him. I wanted to be like him– so much!




Eventually, I resigned from Meena/Unicef-Dhaka a year later. The differences couldn’t be bridged. Immediately, Abed Bhai recruited me as a Senior Faculty Member in the Training Division. He said, “Nuzhat when you’re forty, I’ll make you a Director. You’ll make a great leader…now run along…” I can still hear his soft laughter.




Unicef-Dhaka wanted Brac to recruit a new coordinator to run the project. Abed Bhai refused. He sent the project back to Unicef. On my request he absorbed the entire Meena team in Brac. He was a real leader…




Exactly two months later, I went back to Abed Bhai again. I was offered a P/L-4 job in UNICEF-ESARO based in Nairobi to head the regional Sara girl’s rights Project. I told him the reasons for considering this job. I told him about my minor son…I started crying. He got up and placed his hand on my head. He said, “Brac’s doors will always be open for you…if Africa doesn’t treat you well, you come back to me. I’ll make you a Director.” He gave me a groundbreaking recommendation letter as my referee.




***

A joke remained between us… whenever we met (and we met many times since I left Dhaka), he remembered to asked, “Are you forty yet? Coming back as a Director?” Or I teased him sometimes, “Abed Bhai, I’m forty now…I may change my mind… you’ll find me outside your doorstep...” All my nieces (born overseas and in country) and my son as well as my daughter in law (now a World Bank economist, a masters degree holder from Georgetown) did their internships/began careers with Brac. At present, my son is at the final leg of PHD (DrPH) from George Washington University. Brac and Abed Bhai inspired him…others from the family (former Brac interns) eventually became a doctor, a lawyer, a development worker…this is what I call a Brac legacy!




…The last time I saw Abed Bhai was in July 2014. I went to invite him at my son’s wedding. As usual, I didn’t make any prior appointments. I found Najma apa had retired by then. A young, smart woman was sitting at her desk. She didn’t know me…I requested her to give my name to her boss…the magic happened again. Abed Bhai was eating his lunch as I stepped in his office. He knew all about my son, his work in Brac. He said some amazing, kind words about my son…that’s our Abed Bhai! We were always his family.




I never took him up on his promise. Today I wish I had…It’s a pity!




Epilogue: After ESARO, I rejoined the Meena Regional Project as an International Professional and headed it from 2000-2004 from Unicef-Rosa, Kathmandu. I took Abed Bhai’s advice– never gave up on our little girl…but my dream to create a “Meena Foundation” with Abed Bhai’s blessings never materialized.