Summit speaker Abed knighted at Buckingham Palace

From PRweb.com

Fazle Hasan Abed, speaker at the Women and Peace-building dialogue at the Vancouver Peace Summit, was knighted yesterday at Buckingham Palace.

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 16, 2010 -- Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder and chairperson of BRAC, was knighted on Tuesday in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London. The Knighthood, announced in the Queen’s New Year's Honours List, was awarded in recognition of Sir Fazle’s services to reducing poverty in Bangladesh and internationally.

The Investiture Ceremony was held by Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, who represented Queen Elizabeth II. While conferring the knighthood, Prince Charles mentioned to Sir Fazle that he remembered visiting BRAC in Bangladesh and thanked him for his long service in reducing poverty.

Leaders from around the world have congratulated Sir Fazle on his Knighthood. Queen Rania of Jordan, in her message to Sir Fazle, wrote:

“More than just recognition of your tireless efforts to relieve poverty and disease in Bangladesh and abroad, this Knighthood gives further momentum to your reputation as one of the most dynamic and selfless humanitarians of our time.”

Sir Fazle was appointed Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (KMCG). Following tradition, Sir Fazle knelt on a velvet Investiture Stool to receive the accolade, which was bestowed using the sword which King George VI used when, as Duke of York, he was Colonel of the Scots Guards. Sir Fazle was then invested with a Neck Badge and Star carrying the Insignia of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.

Sir Fazle is the first person of Bangladesh origin to be honored with a Knighthood by the British Crown since 1947. Sir Fazle’s wife, Lady Sarwat Abed, and daughter and son, Tamara and Shameran, were present at the ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

BRAC, an international development organisation, was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 by Fazle Hasan Abed. Today, BRAC has grown to become the world’s largest NGO employing more than 120,000 people, the majority of which are women, and reaching more than 110 million people with development interventions in Asia and Africa.

Since 2002, BRAC has been using its experiences of innovating and scaling up multifaceted anti-poverty programmes to energise and accelerate poverty alleviation efforts in other countries. Currently BRAC has country programmes in Afghanistan, Liberia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Southern Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda. BRAC also provides support to other NGOs in Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Peru.