Two days long festival on ‘Festival of Resilience: People, Planet and Possibilities’ organized by ActionAid Bangladesh (AAB) at the capital’s Naveed’s Comedy Club ends on Friday.
To celebrate the resilience of communities of Bangladesh and the country’s glorious heritage, culture, and traditions, AAB has organized such event. Centering around the strength of Bangladesh’s people to strive and rise against all odds, the festival aims to encourage celebration and participation among communities in recognition of their stories of resilience.
For decades, people of Bangladesh have faced countless challenges, such as, climate and human-induced disasters, inequalities, economic instability, refugee crisis and pandemic. But every time, the mass bounced back with the power of resilience and survived with a renewed vigor. Very recent example would be the last two years, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the collective effort of the people of this country helped communities to stay hopeful and agile, despite all the uncertainties and despair.
“The knack for survival through endurance and surpassing beyond obstacles is what makes us, as a nation, unique and commendable. At ActionAid, we felt that it was high time we celebrated this innate resilience of people – and therefore, came up with the idea of this Festival of Resilience. Through this 2-days long event, we are going to promote the diversity of the country’s culture, an attempt to learn the grassroots’ resilience mechanisms, explore opportunities for potential partnerships and highlight the work of ActionAid Bangladesh for building resilience to increase awareness,” said Farah Kabir, Country Director, ActionAid Bangladesh.
Afsan Chowdhury (Journalist and Researcher) said, it is rare to find such events where a dynamic panel of experienced people all came together to share their views on where Bangladesh stands today and where are we heading as a nation. Such practices can enlighten us on how a nation was formed in 1971, with the combined effort of a diverse group of people. The more we learn about how the foundation of our nation was laid in 1971, the better we can progress.