Energetic individuals from Bangladesh were featured in the “Forbes 30 under 30 Asia 2020” and one of them was Esrat Karim, Founder of Amal Foundation. She was featured in the “Social Entrepreneurs” section because of the initiatives she took through Amal Foundation.
In an interview with Esrat Karim Eve, we asked her some questions where she unveiled her side of the story. So, let’s jump into her story and find out how she took the first step towards making a social change.
First of all, congratulations on making in the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list. Tell us how you feel after achieving this honor.
It is really an amazing feeling and I feel great but I would rather say that I am a person who lives a life with a purpose. In my journey of leadership, this is just another achievement where I had a lot of failures in the past. Now I want to be more humble and take this honor as an achievement which will motivate me more towards my purpose.
You went to the USA to complete the masters. You could have stayed there and build your career. Why did you decide to come back to Bangladesh?
I always wanted to work in the development sector of Bangladesh and I wanted to have something of my own. I did have a good GPA and a good job but I didn’t own any ownership where I could work in implementing all my ideas, my efforts and see what I could actually do.
No one or nothing ever forced me to come back to Bangladesh. I had already made up my mind to work in the development sector and so I went to the USA and gathered experience through working in good companies so I can use that knowledge to do something in my own country.
Since when did you start thinking that Bangladesh needs a social change?
I have been thinking about the social sector since my school and college days and I tried to support communities that worked for a change. After admitting in Dhaka University, I got the opportunity to work with some vulnerable communities.
It was always in my mind and heart about making a change. When I went to the USA to complete my degree, there I had a very good mentor with whom I shared my dreams and he pushed me to achieve my goal.
When someone wants to make a change, they require a lot of support. Did you get the support you required in your crucial times?
When I wanted to start the organization the first support came from my mentors. I also received some volunteers who believed in my work.
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Though at the beginning I didn’t get much support from my family later they were my biggest assets. My parents allowed me to travel to rural areas, stay at those places at night, and supported me in every way possible. In the context of Bangladesh, you can’t do anything without your parent’s support. Then there was my friends and siblings supported me as well and even now they are working with me. Most importantly when my work started to make an impact, the people whom I worked for became my biggest supporter. They are the reason for which I keep ongoing.
What were the challenges you faced while establishing Amal Foundation?
When I came back from the USA I had trouble with the funding of the foundation and then I didn’t have enough manpower. But over time we overcame them.
In the beginning, when we were working on our “Sexual Violence” project there was a guy who gave us a lot of trouble. Cases like this happened a lot. Sometimes we had to back off and sometimes we overcame those challenges.
What is Amal Foundation’s goal? How do you want the organization to make changes in the future?
Amal foundation’s goal is to make sure that all the men and women get equal rights. We want to build a society where everyone can do what they want and fulfill their dreams. If we focus on the urban areas, we see that everyone is getting equal rights but in terms of rural areas, we are still lacking behind. You can’t develop a country only by focusing on the urban area. I know its not possible in my generation but there are a lot of generations left. I want to see Bangladesh as a country where women will be able to fulfill their dreams equally like men without any social barriers. This is what Amal Foundation is working for.
Amal Foundation has taken some excellent initiatives to fight against COVID-19, such as providing food for the people and even animals. How are you maintaining your projects and ensuring the safety of the people who are working with you in this project at the same time?
When you work with good intentions in mind, you’ll always find a way to do it. Corona is now a global concern and this is the time where every foundation should step forward in helping its country and the people.
Many of our active volunteers left Dhaka and went to their home town. We send them resources and food so they can distribute them in their local areas. In Dhaka, we have people in almost every area. We provide them resources and they start distributing. We already know the essential kits to use to stay safe from Corona and we are maintaining that by providing necessary kits to our volunteers.
From your point of view, how are you as a leader?
I can’t give an appropriate answer to this because only the people I work with can say what kind of a leader I am.
Well, I do try to be a good leader although I struggle a lot to maintain my people. There are people in my foundation whom I know for a long time and we had a very informal relation but over time when we started to form the foundation, everyone became disciplined and started to be more professional. As I said I work with a purpose so I take my work and projects seriously but when my employee comes to me with a personal problem, I try to solve that as well. After all my motive is to do something for the people. I don’t know how much of a good leader I am but I’ll always try to be one.
Most entrepreneurs want innovation in services/products unseeing the fact that social change is equally important. Share your opinion on this thinking. As a non-profit organization, we are known as an NGO. We don’t offer any products, we are a service that works for a social cause. We have a lot of partnered brands who funds us to reach our goal.
While all other brands are more focused on innovating products to make life easier, we NGOs constantly focus on bringing changes in the society through innovative initiatives so that our service can sustain in the market as well. After all, that is our job.
If everyone starts to think about the social cause we will start lacking innovation in other sectors. So, we have to maintain everything equally. If social initiatives are taken properly you won’t need thousands of organizations to bring a social change.
Would you like to share any experiences of your own or leave a message for the future entrepreneurs of Bangladesh?
When you become an entrepreneur, you gain recognition but this is very temporary. Real-life is very different and hard from corporate life. When you try to do or establish something you will face many barriers. I myself went through many struggles and depression but I didn’t stop believing in my dreams. So as a future entrepreneur if you can just push yourself a little harder and overcome those struggles and depression no one can stop you from achieving your dream. To all the future entrepreneurs, always believe in yourself, be humble and be resilient and one day you will succeed.
