Farzeen Ferdous Alam was the founding vice-president of Briddhi. As rare as it appears, he was one of the very few who had walked his walk. Turning down opportunities to pursue his higher education in the UK, he stayed in his home country, for he had a vision for Bangladesh. Instead of going to the University of Oxford, he went to the remotest villages of Rangpur. After working in the remotest places possible in Bangladesh, trying to discern what it means to ‘make a difference’, he realized all his humanitarian endeavours would mean nothing if the people he is trying to serve do not have the basic income to access humanitarian services offered by the state and NGOs. Increasing the income level of farmers was the holy grail he spent his life seeking.

With that goal in mind, he started his social enterprise ‘Oggro Ventures’. Through Oggro, he had served more than 30,000 farmers all over Bangladesh, from the northwest corner of the country to the southeast. He built a series of successful start-ups that were geared towards the convergence of his mission, developed an innovative model to mitigate the ‘moral hazard’ dilemma of farmer insurance, and countless more.

We lost Farzeen, though his memories are embedded in the thousands of unheard voices he served. But most importantly, what lives on is his vision of a developed Bangladesh, and his alternative development discourse in solidarity with sustainable growth. Briddhi is determined to keep Farzeen Ferdous Alam alive.

– Team Briddhi