DHAKA, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Founder of the Yidan Prize Charles Chen Yidan has presented the prestigious award to the family members of Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC).
Tamara Abed and Shameran Abed, children of BRAC founder, accepted the award from Charles Chen Yidan at a ceremony in Dhaka Thursday.
Abed's daughter Tamara, also the managing director of BRAC Enterprises and chairperson of the board of trustees of BRAC University, accepted the award while his son Shameran, also the senior director of BRAC microfinance and Ultra Poor Graduation Programme, read out the acceptance speech which Abed drafted last year after the announcement of the prize.
After Abed's passing last month, Charles Chen Yidan decided to visit Dhaka to pay his respect and present the award in person to the BRAC founder's family.
The veteran passed away at a hospital in Dhaka on Dec. 19, 2019 night at the age of 83 after battling a malignant tumour of the brain.
Abed was awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Development for his groundbreaking work on education in September 2019.
During a visit to Abed in October 2019, the Yidan Prize Foundation said it learned directly from this iconic figure in international development his visionary approach and pivotal role in changing the course of education in Bangladesh.
During his two-day visit to Dhaka, Charles Chen Yidan also visited a BRAC school for slum dwellers and an Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre - Play Lab.
BRAC has set up more than 1,400 play-based early childhood development centres across Bangladesh, Tanzania and Uganda, where close to 40,000 children aged 1 to 5 years are presently enrolled.
Founded in 2016 by Charles Chen Yidan, a core founder of Tencent, the Yidan Prize has a mission of creating a better world through education. It consists of two awards, the Yidan Prize for Education Research and the Yidan Prize for Education Development.
