Proshika to operate globally

It was conferred registration on March 15, with its registered office in Vancouver and headquarters in Dhaka.

Proshika International is initiated by Proshika, a Bangladeshi national NGO.

Proshika is the first Bangladeshi development organisation to operate globally with an international registration. Proshika International will work throughout the world replicating the development model and innovations made by Proshika. Proshika has been working for poverty reduction and empowerment of the poor for the last three decades.

The major objectives of Proshika International will be to help reduce poverty in Bangladesh and other countries, as well as to protect and promote human rights, including rights of the poor, children, women, indigenous communities, physically challenged people and migrant workers around the world. To achieve its objectives, it will involve Bangladeshis and expatriates in the North.

Under its programme of action, Proshika International will provide credit to the poor people for implementing income-generating activities, promote quality education, preferably female education through awarding scholarships to the poor meritorious students, upgrade secondary schools in Bangladesh and provide legal support and job information to the Bangladeshi immigrant labourers around the world. It will also establish Bengali language schools and cultural centres in different countries to promote Bengali language, culture and heritage among the expatriate Bangladeshis and help them cope with their cultural alienation and identity crisis in a foreign milieu.

Dr Qazi Faruque Ahmed is the president of Proshika International while Mahbubul Karim, Rafiqul Islam and Shah Newaz are its vice-president, secretary and treasurer.