Campus Report :
The British Council has hosted the Bangladesh-UK Alumni Network (BUKAN) Gala Night 2018 on Saturday at Bangabandhu International Conference Center. The event was a follow-up to the month long digital campaign by the British Council to reach out to UK alumni residing in Bangladesh in order to include them in BUKAN and utilize their collective expertise to contribute to key developmental issues of the country. Over 250 UK alumni from diverse sectors attended the programme among which many were newly registered BUKAN members who participated for the first time. The Deputy British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Kanbar Hossein Bor and David Maynard, Director English and Education, British Council also joined the event.
David welcomed the alumni and opened the event with a short message on British Council’s activities in Bangladesh. The participants were given a summary of BUKAN’s journey and way forward by Towhidur Rahman, Head of Higher Education and Regional Manager, South Asia – CSFP British Council. Sarwat Reza, Head of Cultural Centre British Council outlined the scope for potential engagement of the alumni with British Council and kicked off the highlight of the event – Human Library. The audience was divided into small groups with volunteers from each group acting as a human book where they shared their experience about the influence of a woman in their life.
Kanbar Hossein Bor, the Deputy High Commissioner to Bangladesh made the closing speech, thanking the alumni for their participation and their keen interest in contributing from their respective positions. He expressed his hope that going forward BUKAN will be able to create a positive impact with the help of its diverse members. The event ended on a high note with the alumni coming together for a group photo and engaging in networking over dinner.
There are around 20,000 Bangladeshi UK alumni living in the country and BUKAN has been working since 2012 with the aim of uniting them under one umbrella to give them the platform to leverage their skills and knowledge for creating a positive impact on the socio-economic conditions of Bangladesh. British Council plans to arrange more events in the coming days for BUKAN members to engage with key social and economic issues.
