2003 - The Beginning
Founding Agami
The year was 1988. In late November, Bangladesh was hit by one of the worst tropical cyclones in its history. This came on the heels of a once-in-a-century type of flood that hit in August, flooding about 60% of the country. Winds hit 130 MPH. More than 6000 lives were lost and 70% of crops were destroyed. Khulna, in the south, experienced a significant loss of life and crippling damage to infrastructure. The bustling capital city of Dhaka found itself grappling with the effects of this natural disaster as well. This hit home hard as close family members found themselves displaced and struggling. Even though I was born and raised in Canada, my heart was with my family in Dhaka.
As these grim series of events unfolded, my Bangladeshi roots sprang into action. At the time, I was a graduate student at Berkeley, living in international dorms. I needed to do something, even if it was from half a world away. I printed a few simple flyers and posted them around campus. I focused on Etcheverry Hall, the engineering building, and my dorm, International House. Email was still relatively new, but very soon, I had amassed a 'fortune' of close to $1500. At this critical point, I was faced with the greatest challenge – how does this money actually reach the people affected? I spoke to a local Bangladeshi organization, and they too didn’t have the answers. They referred me to a few national organizations. Given the lack of any clear options, I hesitantly sent the money to an organization in Washington, DC. To this day, I’m unsure of exactly where the money went or how it reached the people of Bangladesh. However, it was an invigorating and rewarding process and shed light on the need for a more direct path to the actual people in need in Bangladesh. My desire to have an accountable and transparent impact with monetary donations eventually drove me to start my own organization.
After the cyclone work, I started looking more into how to help in Bangladesh. My focus for philanthropy shifted from disaster relief to education. Education has always been the topmost priority in our family. Education, in no uncertain terms, had saved our family. My grandfather (Dada) was a good student; however, as a young boy, he contracted a severe illness causing him to fall behind in his studies. Given this shortfall, he made sure that his children studied. My father, being the oldest, was pushed to complete his higher education which enabled him to begin a career in Canada. With Abu’s help, many of his siblings have enjoyed successful careers and lives, due to their education.
I continued to research Bangladesh’s needs, resources, and charitable streams. Based on my findings, I expanded the scope of “education” to include basic education, public health, and vocational training to fast-track income generation. To put this into context, here are some sobering statistics. In 1990, the poverty rate was 97%. The literacy rate was less than 35%. Compounding the issue, the enrollment rate for primary school was only 75%. It was clear to me that education had to be at the core of my mission.
In 1990, to help address these systemic issues in Bangladesh, I decided to formalize my efforts. I consulted with the one man who served as mentor to our whole family, my father, to decide on a name that would capture the essence of the organization – that is to provide hope, promise a better future, and create lasting change. Together, we decided upon “Agami”, the English translation meaning “future.” This is exactly what we wanted to create for Bangladesh. I wanted to keep the organizational pillars simple: transparency, secular, volunteer based. As James Doolittle (famous American aviation pioneer) said, "Nothing beats stronger than the heart of a volunteer." These are Agami's Core Values and to this day, they are essentially unchanged.
In 2002, my father, always looking for ways to help Agami, introduced me to Dr. Sabir Majumder and Dr. Mahmudul Hassan, editors of the Bangladeshi magazine, Porshi, for which Abu was a frequent contributor. Together, with a common passion to promote education in Bangladesh, we formally incorporated Agami as an IRS 501(c)3 organization. For our first project, we chose a school in my mother’s hometown, Comilla with a modest budget of $1500. This was the perfect start. And thus, Agami was born.
Dr. Babu Rahman, California
Agami volunteers meet in 2003 to formalize Agami as a non-profit registered organization in United States of America
Agami volunteers meet in 2003 to formalize Agami as a non-profit registered organization in United States of America
Agami volunteers meet in 2003 to formalize Agami as a non-profit registered organization in United States of America
Dr. Babu Rahman’s flyer on campus walls for the effort relief from 1990.