ActionAid’s ‘festival of resilience’ ends

A two-day festival titled "Festival of Resilience: People, Planet and Possibilities" organised by ActionAid Bangladesh in Dhaka ended on June 10, said a press release.

Centring around the strength of Bangladesh's people to strive and rise against all odds, the festival aimed to encourage celebration and participation among communities in recognition of their stories of resilience.

The festival took place on June 9 and 10 at Naveed's Comedy Club in Gulshan-2.

For decades, people of Bangladesh have faced countless challenges, such as, climate and human-induced disasters, inequalities, economic instability, refugee crisis and pandemic. 

On June 9, the programmes included performance by Happy Home girls; inauguration of exhibition and kiosks; dialogue on "Multi-dimensional perspective of resilience," featuring Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid Bangladesh, Dr Maleka Banu, general secretary of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, etc.

Remarks by Dr M Khalilur Rahman, member of the general assembly of AAIBS, marked the conclusion of the first day's arrangement.

On June 10, Espen Rikter-Svendsen, ambassador of Norwegian embassy in Dhaka; and Nayoka Martinez-Backstrom, first secretary of environment and climate change at Embassy of Sweden in Dhaka, were present as special guests. 

The event started with a flash mob by the young participants of the Activista Network of ActionAid Bangladesh. 

There were three Human Book Café sessions with distinguished speakers -- Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of international relations and director of Centre for Genocide Studies, Dhaka University; Naveed Mahbub, popular comedian and columnist; Tania Wahab, entrepreneur; Afsan Chowdhury, journalist and researcher; Shameem Akhtar, filmmaker and media activist; Shakil Ahmed, futurist, educator, and storyteller at Ridiculous Futures; Mahrukh Mohiuddin, managing director of The University Press Limited; Afzal Hossain, popular actor and director; and Ahsan Rony, founder of Greensaver.