It was during the early days of COVID-19 that F.M. Farhan Faiyaz and his brother left their house in Dhaka, Bangladesh armed with 500 face masks and a big idea.
Their goal? To equip the rickshaw drivers and other manual workers in their local neighbourhood with information and supplies to protect them from COVID-19.
“I had a banner which outlined the basic COVID precautions, and I saw loads of people just looking at us,” says Farhan, now a student in the UTS Master of Business Analytics.
“We’d made a DIY microphone with a portable Bluetooth speaker and my phone to make sure people heard our message.”
As he spoke, sharing health advice about how to stop the spread of the virus, Farhan didn’t know that he was laying the foundations for what would later become the award-winning Porikolpona Foundation.
But when he went out the next day and saw almost a hundred people wearing the brightly coloured orange masks he’d distributed, he realised just how much of difference such simple gesture could make.
A grassroots humanitarian project
Today, the Porikolpona Foundation has raised more than $14,000 and delivered aid to more than 25,000 people in Farhan’s home country of Bangladesh, where one in five people live below the poverty line.
It’s a remarkable example of grassroots humanitarian action, but according to Farhan, it wasn’t something he’d ever planned to do. Instead, it was a kneejerk reaction to the COVID-19 quarantine restrictions, which many of Bangladesh’s poorest people were forced to ignore in order to make ends meet.
“They couldn’t afford to be in quarantine. In my neighbourhood, I just wanted to educate people about COVID because they were being affected every single day”
As the foundation grew, so too did Farhan’s understanding of just how much need there was out in the community.
Over the last three years, he’s led a series of fundraising and operational activities that have seen the foundation’s volunteers deliver 10 campaigns across Bangladesh, including distributing food packages to low-income families during Eid and rebuilding storm-damaged homes.
For his efforts, he was honoured with a 2023 Diana Award, an international accolade that recognises impactful social or humanitarian contributions made by people aged 25 and under.
This awards scheme was set up in memory of Princess Diana in recognition of her belief that young people have the power to change the world.
“It was a little overwhelming,” he says of finding out he’d won the award.
“But I believe that my team works really hard, and everything we’ve achieved over the past three years, this is the result of our hard work and dedication.”
Image Credit: Adobe Stock
Embedding data analytics at the heart of social action
Now based in Sydney, Farhan continues to run the foundation from afar as he pursues his postgraduate studies at UTS Business School.
He chose the Master of Business Analytics based on his love of all things entrepreneurship, his growing fascination with data analytics, and because he could see the degree’s potential to support his future work, including at the Porikolpona Foundation.
“Fundraising has been a very important aspect of running the foundation, and one important aspect of getting those funds was making data-driven presentations for donors,” he says.
“We had loads of data that we gathered from our previous campaigns, and we’d leverage that data to make insightful presentations.
“I was really intrigued by how data could actually influence fundraising and how people perceived our campaigns.”
While he’s not yet sure whether the foundation will become his full-time mission, Farhan can see himself staying connected to his humanitarian roots, no matter where his future business career might take him.
“I love doing it, and I plan to keep that project running,” he says.
“I’ve never taken a salary from the Porikolpona Foundation — I just worked because it gave me fulfilment.”