Daughter Tamara Abed remembers how Sir Fazle spent his final days for people, BRAC

Not even cancer could stop Sir Fazle Hasan Abed from working for the people and BRAC in the final days of his life, according to Tamara Hasan Abed.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 4 Feb 2020, 11:35 PM
Updated : 5 Feb 2020, 00:21 AM

At a commemoration organised by BRAC in Dhaka on Tuesday, the daughter remembered how the founder of the world’s largest development NGO spent those days.

“To me, he was a complete human being. He showed how far a human being can go - in his life, and even in his death,” Tamara said.   

Unlike many others who would break down, Abed was mentally strong when he was diagnosed with a rate type of cancer at a London hospital in the second week of July last year, she said.

“He steeled himself and asked the doctor all sorts of questions about the treatment for some half an hour, and then he decided to leave the disease be without intervention, which meant there were around four months for him to live.”  

He died at a hospital in Dhaka on Dec 20.

Tamara had told The New York Times that her father died from complications of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer.

Abed had left the job of a senior corporate executive and returned to Bangladesh from the UK to work for the people in a dramatic change in the direction of his life following the 1970 cyclone and the 1971 Liberation War.

He founded in 1972 what was then Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee or BRAC, later changed into Brac, to support war-torn Bangladesh’s rebuilding efforts.

It eventually grew into the world’s largest indigenous NGO and a global brand in the development community.

Tamara said her father had also wished to spend the last days with the people of Bangladesh after working for them all through his life.

He had also wanted to ensure that BRAC flourished through good governance under the right structure and leadership, she said.

Abed returned home in mid-July last year and started working to install a new leadership in the organisation.

“He spent the next three weeks at office working until 7pm to 8pm every day. He worked in finding new board members and a chairperson to succeed him,” his daughter said.

Sir Fazle announced his retirement on Aug 6, appointing the new board of directors, with former caretaker government adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman as chairperson. Ameerah Haq, a former UN under-secretary-general, was made chairperson of BRAC International.

At 83 years of age, Abed “is leaving the stage while still being an able and working person”, a senior aide had said at the time.

Tamara said Abed worried about the coastal people even at the hospital when cyclone Bulbul was brewing over the Bay of Bengal in the second week of November.

“He was so solicitous that it seemed his family members were also affected. He appeared to be recalling the 1970 Bhola cyclone. He told us to ensure all sorts of help during the cyclone,” she said.      

And Abed travelled to his birthplace, Baniachong in Habiganj, by helicopter in October to visit a school built in remembrance of his brother Najmul Hasan Zahed when it became difficult for him to even move, his daughter said.   

“He said he wanted to see for himself how the girls of Baniachong were changing their lives,” she said.

Abed did not want to miss the works of his favourite litterateurs in the hospital. He continued listening to music as well.  

“A time came when he lost the ability to read. I read him Rabindranath, TS Eliot, Shakespeare and William Wordsworth,” his daughter said.     

“He told us stories about his mother and my mother. He discussed how human civilisation walked forward, on what path it is advancing now, what he wants for his grandchildren and descendants, his thoughts about education and BRAC University,” said Tamara, the chairperson of the university’s board of trustees.

The idea of his “complete life” was clear to Sir Fazle, she said.

“Abbu [father] believed his every work, every moment mattered. That’s how he spent his life,” Tamara said.