Social Business Promotional Tour at Rajshahi University
After opening the countrywide social business promotional tour by conducting a workshop at the Daffodil International University, the Yunus Centre Social Business team set off for Rajshahi to conduct a similar workshop for the students of the Social Work Department of Rajshahi University.
The reception was overwhelming, with a turnout of almost 500 students, which included a number of students from other departments as well.
The workshop was broken down into 3 phases. The 1st phase consisted of an introduction, with a speech by the University representatives and Mr. M.F.M. Amir Khashru from the Yunus Centre team. A presentation and information sharing of social business followed by a brief Q/A session took place during the 2nd phase while th 3rd and final phase was the workshop.
In the first phase, the host gave the opening speech, Dr. Md. Faruque Hossain (Associate Professor, Department of Social Work) followed by Prof. Dr. Syeda Afreena Mamun, Head of the same department.
After that the podium was handed over to Mr. Khashru who started with an introduction to what Yunus Centre does and talked briefly on social business and its impact globally. His speech ended with the mention of the structure of the workshop.
Mr. Md. Nazmul Hossain and Mr. Labib Tarafdar conducted the second phase of the workshop. The idea of this phase was to give to the attendees, sufficient knowledge about social business through a presentation on the ideology of the concept, its global impact, global network and real life examples of social business ventures. This was followed by a brief Q/A session.
The third phase was the workshop, which required the entire Yunus Centre team to play a vital role. The member, other than the ones already mentioned were: Ms. Farzana Zerin, Ms. Fiamma Degl'Innocenti and Mr. Nahid Shovon. The attendees were broken down into 5 groups and one Yunus Centre Representative mentored each group. Each group were given a particular social problem that Bangladesh faces on a regular basis and the task for them was to think of a social business through which they would be able to tackle their particular problem. After the brainstorming session, each group was invited on to the stage to give a presentation on their idea.
Meanwhile Mr. Khashru held a press briefing in a separate room where few local media, representative of the Daily Star and the university journalist team were present.
The workshop closed with a speech by Mr. Khashru where he talked about the upcoming Social Business Day 2012 and invited the students and staff to the event. He then handed over the responsibility to Dr. Faruque Hossain to open a Social Business Club or Society and promised him that the Yunus Centre will assist in whatever way possible to carry out the process.
The workshop was the biggest that the Yunus Centre social business team has conducted so far. The success of the workshop gave the team members confidence on their ability to carry out such programs in the future.
