* victory day celebration with adhunika!
Following post is by Kyoko Mona, Friend of Adhunika NY since 2007
Another successful year for Adhunika! The recent Bangladesh Victory day – Bijoy Dibosh celebration on December 11 was a great year-end touch. The event was held in Connect – a cozy space in New York City. Around fifty Adhunika’s family members and friends in green and red outfits joined to celebrate Bangladesh’s birthday, at least that’s how the children present in the event had expressed it!
The guests were greeted with Antora Sheikh’s warm smile. Sharzil Rahman our emcee welcomed and introduced Tin Konna of Adhunika (Bashma, Ditiya, and Proma) who paid tribute to martyrs, freedom fighters of ’71 & loved ones we lost in war, through the songs – Ek shagor rokter binimoye, September on Jessore Road, and Wake me up when September ends.
The songs were followed by Adhunika’s year-end updates by Shahnaz Yousuf, founder and the president of Adhunika. Shahnaz highlighted her trips to Bangladesh earlier this year and the events in New York this year; a very successful fundraising event Pohela Boishakh in April, dance performance by Lubna Mariam and her team, picnic, and elaborated on the partnership with DREAM Project & Shakti Peers. Because of the fund raised Adhunika was able to buy five new computers for Adhunika Bangladesh Society (ABS). Shahnaz also thanked all Adhunika’s members and dedicated volunteers without whom none of these could have happened.
Then Baby Aziz – Friend of Adhunika since 2008 gave a brief presentation about her trip to ABS. She was very excited to see those new computers and smiles on the girls’ faces who receive computer training at ABS. She was amazed to see how our work here makes a big difference in somebody else life. Baby Aziz also conveyed that ABS would run more efficiently if the center has an integrated power system (IPS). Without an IPS and with current load-shadings in Bangladesh, ABS cannot run training continuously.
After Baby Aziz’s presentation, Laila Latif performed a dance with Sachin Deb Burman’s song ‘Tak Dum, Tak Dum Bajey Bangladesher Dhol’. She was simply great! Her free style and cheerful personality set the tone for rest of the evening.
Adhunika arranged a small informative Bijoy Dibosh presentation for the children of the event. The presentation in style of story-telling was presented by Navine Murshid, Nadine Murshid, and Faisal Jalal. They traveled more than 200 miles to come to the event and tell the story.
Then the evening proceeded by a spirit lifting song performed by Mahbuba Rumana Choudhury, Amar ekhtara lagena amar dotata lagena. This was Rumana’s first solo song performance and she did great.
The celebration ended by an art competition! All the children participated in the competition were announced as winners on the victory day.
Nadia Fletcher, Samia Ahmed & Samantha Ahmed – served
many refreshments including mouth watering pithas, puff pastry, sweet nuts & warm cha to our friends. Selina Huq played one of the most important role – showcasing Nityhoshongee products – a joint project by Late designer Shahruk Shahid that support our cause. Everybody enjoyed the cozy and free-spirited celebration.
Adhunika as always is grateful to her friends who reach out to assist her – Labiba, Soma, Aram, Drew, Raheem, and Arif made the event. We missed many of our friends whose named were not explicitly mentioned above but who are always there as a backbone of the organization.
Without any doubt, the event was brighter because of new family members and friends on that evening; one among them was the guest of honor, the Bangladesh Consul General, Shabbir A. Chowdhury, it was surely a victory day!
Kyoko Mona, December 12, 2010
Photo Credit: Aram, Tanya