BRAC founder and Chair Emeritus Fazle Hasan Abed passed away Friday night while undergoing treatment at a city hospital. He died around 8:28pm on Friday, said a statement issued by the Brac. He was 83 years old. Earlier he was admitted to a hospital in Dhaka on November 28 after he fell in sick. He had founded the non-governmental organization Brac in 1972 and retired as the chairperson of Brac Bangladesh and Brac International in August 2019. He had also became the chair emeritus of the world’s largest non-governmental organisation.
In September 2019, Fazle Hasan Abed was awarded the prestigious Yidan Prize, the largest international prize in education, for his groundbreaking role in educational development in Bangladesh. On November 20, he was honoured with the Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau for his successful work in alleviating poverty, especially of women and children.
Fazle Abed was the lone Bangladeshi, who was honoured with a knighthood by the British Crown, which was refused by Rabindranath Tagore. He was knighted in 2010.
He was honoured with numerous national and international awards, including the Outstanding Member of the South Asian Diaspora Award this month. Some other awards include World Food Prize (2015), Spanish Order of Civil Merit (2014), Leo Tolstoy International Gold Medal (2014), WISE Prize for Education (2011).
