Uniting for Change
We are quick to dwell on the emotional separation that the world wide web brings as it limits the formation of personal and meaningful social connections in our society. However, in some cases, the potential of the plausible social outreach that the internet brings can be used to make a powerful positive difference.
The #BacharLorai movement originated on Zoom and Hangout video calls between Bangladeshi expatriates who initially wanted to execute their vision of cushioning the COVID-19 hit in Bangladesh. Now it stands out to keep bridging like-minded people who continue to connect those who want to help to those in need.
#BacharLorai translates to ‘fight for survival’ in English. Initiated as what it reads to be, it was a simple hashtag out of many that went along with an explainer video on social distancing from one of our own. While students and young professionals abroad were thinking of creating some kind of opportunity to help the situation in Bangladesh in their own capacities, two of them decided to use the hashtag on a few projects to deliver respiratory masks and food relief to unemployed daily wage earners and health centres shaken by COVID-19.
While the two projects finished, a few others began and the idea of a hashtag connecting expatriate led projects started to ring a bell. It was at that crucial time in the world that relationships over the internet meant more and the video conferences became a tad bit meaningful. As brainstorming sessions went around in a circle, diagrams were drawn on a piece of paper which led to a google form with two questions:
Do you need help?
Do you want to help?
The rest, as they say, is history; but for this story let’s recall the digital connections that made us more human.
With the diagrams on a piece of paper and sections on the google form taking many shapes as the days passed, a YPF webinar shared the essence of #BacharLorai with the world for the first time. A formidable connection was made with notable persons from our established friends at Resource Coordination Network Bangladesh (RCNB). Tipping it off in early April 2020.
Over the coming days, #BacharLorai and RCNB would go through simultaneous brainstorming sessions on how to work together, providing each other support at a crucial point in time where most initiatives fall to the fallacy of marketing. Partnered together the two acted as one, empowering each other as they created a base and discovered a reason for the movement to stand on its own, to connect Bangladesh expatriates, citizens and grassroots in the fight against COVID-19.
While core front-end partnerships for aid delivery were made with organizations like We for Them, Leaping Boundaries and RCNB, another vital one was brewing in the back-end. A group of people started to conceptualize a way to display grassroots efforts from members of the movement on a map of Bangladesh.
The movement started to grow its legs as members embarked towards a solution for the ventilator problem in Bangladesh. One thing led to another and big conversations started to happen with leading startups, electronic manufacturers and even the Indian start-up that cracked the problem.
In retrospect, our headquarters floated on Facebook groups and our boardrooms came to life on video conferences. With each day passing, another Bangladeshi joined in with new thoughts, fresh perspectives and that similar will to create solid change. Until we met the one Bangladeshi that changed our lives forever.
Tashfia Zaman, a development worker, was hit with COVID-19 during the initial stages of the pandemic in Bangladesh. As she was recovering, she continued to document the scarcities of the treatment facilities in Bangladesh on social media. This led us to set up a conversation with her. However, the details of the conversation that we embarked on once she recovered were not pretty. Our healthcare centres did not have adequate equipment to tackle the COVID-19 crisis nor the basic necessities, such as food and PPE sets, to be provided to our doctors. These inadequacies led to the sharing of equipment that is originally meant to be given to patients on an individual basis, such as nebulizers and oxygen pipes. A lot to absorb while efforts on general relief were going on in unique ways on the ground.
The conversation of her let us boggled on how we could help the situation in any way possible. The timing wasn’t too bad, as the group of analysts working on the map started talking to another group responsible for the front end portfolio. The two eventually came together as www.bacharlorai.com, powered by a stellar presence on Instagram and Facebook, thanks to a versatile social media team that brought everything together.
In an effort to answer the calling, #BacharLorai embarked on its first journey to help the healthcare situation in Bangladesh. A project was launched to motivate doctors in Dhaka, Comilla, Chittagong and Bajitpur through food and public health messaging over the final two weeks of Ramadan. Powered by expatriates, supported by the Toronto Doctors Lions Club and brought to life by our volunteers, it surpassed its goals on the night before Eid.
By now, we had built a thriving healthcare network, which allowed us to get first-hand information about the crisis that Bangladeshi hospitals faced. The news came in saying that oxygen was in short supply and with oxygen being the primary method of treatment for affected patients, this seemed to be the most important gap to fill. Updates from healthcare experts laid the foundation and motivation to push the Oxygen for Life project that focused on healthcare equipment along with rural supply chains.
Individuals from the movement came together to procure cylinders from Islam Gas, one of the four certified oxygen producers in Bangladesh, and send them to the hardest hit treatment facilities across the country. Movement and organisations such as Inner Wheel Rotary Club, Platform, BEACON and BDF (Bangladesh Doctor’s Forum) all joined in to secure the supply chain and overall accountability. The numbers for Oxygen for Life till now shows promise and captures the attention of many who started to believe in the essence of #BacharLorai, leading to a decision to continue providing cylinders to hospitals until the worst is over in Bangladesh.
Projects of this magnitude would not have materialized without the support of individuals spanning all generations. One of our very own, connected to their parents who offered direct healthcare expertise and advice to empower the project from start to date. A new group of members and parents came together to help us reach our fundraising goals. That was a moment of moral victory for all of us as we started to understand that this movement was more than we imagined it to be. The norms of society that divided generations for generations were broken as this movement brought us all together.
With Oxygen for Life having a leg of its own, the movement started to attract new ideas from those who had never heard of it before. A team of working professionals in the United States, Canada and Bangladesh came together to provide food relief to workers who had lost their jobs to COVID-19 in Deobagh. A friendly Montreal resident reached out with an idea to provide PPEs to COVID hit health facilities in Bangladesh and a group of people in North America came together with an answer to the unfortunate reality of cyclone Amphan hitting the coast of Bangladesh in May 2020.
#BacharLorai was in full swing, connecting people with resources to those without. Expatriates were turning their heads as articles started to fly out and sentiments of love and care broke through from a freedom fighter’s heart. Solidifying our strength together as one Bangladesh and consolidating a positive tone for our healthcare heroes putting their lives on the line. Amphan efforts were in full swing as direct relief was distributed to affected areas. Destroyed houses and schools were planned for rebuilding, sanitation facilities were being arranged and a women’s hygiene intervention was planned.
A timely article on Digital Social Innovation was penned to provide a social base to stand on which solidified a dynamic ideology into a lasting cause for change. The PPE project that was launched was the result of a successful global collaboration between individuals from Sydney, Toronto, Dhaka and Montreal. These folks were inclined towards one goal, which was to arm our healthcare workers with PPEs. That is when we realized that not only did this movement cater to various generations, but it catalyzed the unification of several cultures under one cause: unite to offer your help to those in need.
The essence of bringing people across the globe together resonated high when a group of students from Cornell University reached out for support. At the time, mental health efforts were underway with two webinars bringing prominent personalities to start the dialogue. Combined with a rolling stream of infographics, messaging and public health communications put out through various platforms with the help of FactCheckBD and content designers, the tone had shifted to the general public once again.
June 2020 saw the ramp-up of projects at each of #BacharLorai’s focus areas which included; the first student-led fundraiser for helping the unemployed from Bangladeshi Students Association at Cornell University, new partnerships with Better Future Bangladesh, Footsteps and Uttaran and the launch of VOICES by BacharLorai, this very publication itself.
On a given day every member was bound to have a productive conversation with another member halfway across the world, or to the least, miles away.
The second wave of relationship-building involved a completely new group of students and professionals working together who were brought in to answer a project inspired by Oxygen for Life and Project Amphan: In an effort to arm healthcare centres with more capacity and provide infrastructural support that went beyond COVID-19, a bold initiative was taken to directly provide beds including IV stands and medical cabinets, along with cabin renovations to treatment facilities across the country. Including a special first-time intervention at the Rohingya Camps in Bangladesh. The task seeming difficult at first was made easy by a decentralized working group of student leaders across Canada and the US. An inevitable partnership with Oxygen for Life followed with a collaboration to deliver cylinders along with the beds in the camps and health centres.
As #payup hit the headlines, one member of the movement called out for change while our friends at Cornell stepped up to the task. By the end of June, Cornell BSA’s fundraiser for was ranked as the top fundraiser from the United States to provide for garments workers losing their jobs due to big clothing manufacturers cancelling payments for orders placed before COVID-19.
This was a time to sit back and watch the movement do its thing. As people called for change, #BacharLorai became a regular go-to for starting something. With Oxygen for Life running at full swing, a historic partnership was created to bring hospital bed capacity project to the finish line.
For the first time ever in Bangladeshi Canadian History, Seven student bodies in Eastern Canada came together as the first-ever ‘Canadian Alliance of Bangladeshi Student Associations’ for a journey of social change.
Bangladeshi students from Concordia University, McGill University, Ryerson University, University of Toronto and York University stepped up to promote social innovation and provide relief in Bangladesh — collaborating with Hospital Beds for Bangladesh to start off a meaningful partnership for months to come.
As we reach the climax of Summer 2020, strategic planning is in full swing as we start to absorb the energy and inspiration brought in from young students joining the movement. As the BSAs come together to empower Oxygen for Life, many of the students involved are also looking at ways to empower women, support the underprivileged and create positive long term change from halfway across the world.
The narrative that echoed between the lines from our Tigers when they came together to salute our frontline workers was one similar to how the movement evolved when our students joined in.
#BacharLorai was a small yet integral effort in the fight against COVID-19. As we look towards better days, we strive to continue creating change. Bangladeshis come together in times of crisis. For many of us memories of 71’ paint scenes of books and tv shows. It is the relationships between us that depict similar feelings of unity once again, perhaps digital this time.
Students and young professionals uniting with our elders locally and globally will be the forefront of the next generation of change for Bangladesh.
#BacharLorai
