Original
news was published in the Daily Prothom Alo. I liked it so much that I immediately made up
my mind to translate it into English.
Mosharrof
Hossain Khan is one of the 10-15 thousand UBER drivers in New York. He was born
in Brahmanpara upazila of Comilla district. While talking to him on the third
day of the New Year, he was in a hurry to go out with his car. His 29 years of
American life has been spent on different roads in New York.
In
the year 2014, Brahmanpara’s Mosharrof Hossain Khan Chowdhury Degree College in
Comilla was ranked among the top 20 colleges under the board. Therefore, there
arose a demand for starting graduate courses in the college. The government gave
attention to implementing that demand. Now, there are ten undergraduate courses
in this college. It has been renamed Mosharrof Hossain Khan Chowdhury
University College.
Though
Mosharrof Hossain is a taxi driver by profession, he does other works too. But
whatever he does, he has one objective, to arrange some extra money after
fulfilling all his needs in New York City. He spends this money to run ten
organizations in Bangladesh. Five of these are educational institutes located
at Comilla, his birthplace.
Mosharrof
Hossain said, “My devotion to educational institution has come from my family
teaching. My grandfather established a school. Student of that school is now the
principal of Victoria College. Many others are established in other prestigious
sectors. I believe that one day students of schools and colleges would lead
this country.”
He
was a student of class five when his father died. Due to poverty, he could not continue
his study. But Mosharrof Hossain’s dream was to take his father’s and
grandfather’s dream forward. His father established a school in Rangamati, but
could not make in his area. For this reason, with the help of villagers, he has
set up all his educational institutions in his own region.
For
the sake of livelihood, he first moved to Qatar, a country in the Middle East. Later
in 1989, he moved to New York. In that year, in his own initiative and finance,
he first established Abdur Razzak Khan Chowdhury High School in his own
village. Then he gradually established seven more organizations. Among them, Mosharrof
Hossain Khan Chowdhury University College has around 4000 students. Abdul Matin
Khasru, the Minister of Law and Justice, helped him get his institutions MPO
enlisted. For this reason, Mosharrof Hossain established a women’s college,
which has 500 female students, in the name of the former Minister of Law and
Justice. Besides, the number of students at Abdur Razzak Khan Chowdhury High
School is around 1000. Other institutes established by him are Mumu-Rohan Child
Pre Cadet, Asheda-Jobeda Madrasa, Mosharrof Hossain Khan Chowdhury Foundation
and Brahmanpara Diabetic Hospital.
He
got more support from his wife in his own journey. Mosharrof Hossain believes he
could do so many things because of her inspiration. He said, ‘If I wanted I
could have brought my wife and children over here. But if I did, my dream would
have been disrupted. Life is very difficult here. I can work here continuously
because my family is not here. So, I can save some extra money and send it over
to my country.’
He
does not want to stop here. Mosharrof Hossain wants to do more work. That is
why, he did not even buy a house and car in America. His two children are
studying in Dhaka. He spends a lot of money to run his family in Dhaka. He is
still in New York to provide for them. He is thinking of returning to his
country permanently after completing all his works.
At
present, his educational organizations are getting teachers’ payroll and other government
facilities for being MPO enlisted. But before that, he never thought of taking donation
or financial help from anybody. He said, ‘Still I do not take donation. Because
someone might say that he or she will give $200, but to collect that amount
takes a lot of time which I cannot afford. I would rather work a bit harder so
that I do not need to take any donation from anyone.’
Source-
No comments:
Post a Comment