On Saturday 4th February 2023, at the renowned Impression Events Venue, Stratford, Bangladesh Regeneration Trust UK (BRTUK) held their AGM and elections for the 2023-2025 session.

There were ten existing members eligible as part of the nomination process, with three Election Commissioners present to oversee the election process.

Mostafa Hussain, existing Trustee and Vice Chair of BRTUK, presented the highlights of the Annual Report and informed those that were present that the current Chair, Saleha Islam, was unfortunately unable to continue in her role at this time due to her personal and family circumstances, and stood down from having her name on the ballot paper. However, she would potentially return once her situation became a bit more settled.

Furthermore, Anjuma Choudhury, the current Secretary was also unable to continue as a Trustee due to her new work commitments.

Nazir Ali, acting Secretary, presented the details of the annual Heritage and Charity tour. This unique 10-day tour enables people from the UK to visit Bangladesh and carry out charity and compliance visits whilst receiving a guided tour of the country. The participants have to pay for all of their costs as well as commit to fundraising for the charity. This year, eight people will be visiting Dhaka, Sundarbans, Rajshahi, Cox’s Bazar, St Martin’s Island, Sylhet and Sunamgonj. Some aspects of the trip will involve visiting historical sites and participating in the distribution of educational materials at schools and visiting and seeing BRTUK’s existing projects in Bangladesh.

Ibrahim Ali, the current Treasurer, presented highlights of the income and expenditures for 2022-2023. It was astonishing to see almost £150K was disbursed for education, health and livelihood projects.

As the meeting progressed to the Election, the three Election Commissioners, Lutfur Rahman, Harun Miah & Suruk Ahmed explained the rules and procedures of the election. The team then proceeded to elect six trustees to oversee the affairs of the charity’s work for the upcoming session.

The following individuals were elected:

1. Mostafa Hussain

2. Ibrahim Ali

3. Mayen Uddin Ansar

4. Nazir Ali

5. Abdul Hakim

6. Yahya Alkasmiah

The committee then proceeded to elect the Chairperson to lead the next session. They unanimously elected Ibrahim Ali as the chair of BRTUK for the session 2023-2025.

Ibrahim thanked the election commissioners and all those that participated in the election. He also recognised and thanked all the people who had led the previous session and took BRTUK to new heights with Saleha Islam’s and Islam Uddin’s support, BRTUK further expanded to become a project of the Global Development Foundation (GDF).

“Our duas are with sister Saleha, thanks to her efforts for the previous term, which was under challenging circumstances with covid, we still managed to support many needy communities within Bangladesh”, said Ibrahim.

“It is now the right time to look forward and work together in helping those in need, our past successes are based on the collective team effort from everyone in this group and our extended networks – and this will be the foundation on which we will grow our charity”, he added.

The other roles and responsibilities of the charity will be allocated at the next Trustees meeting.

The event ended with photo processions and a light lunch.