We live in a society where signs of moral breakdown are visible to all of us. However, this phenomenon has not been thoroughly studied or researched in the context of Bangladesh yet. If left unaddressed, the moral and ethical crisis we face today can leave detrimental and lasting effects on our social fabric. With this in mind, the Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) and the North American Bangladeshi Islamic Community (NABIC) decided to create a joint venture that would work exclusively on ethics.
We are glad to share that we officially launched the Center for Ethics Education (CEE) on January 13, 2018. The launching event was held at the seminar room of the Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST). A workshop was organized prior to the inauguration in which 9 groups of school, college and university students shared their ideas on moral and ethical problems of everyday life.
Advocate Sultana Kamal, a distinguished human rights activist and a former Advisor to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh, attended the event as the Chief Guest, while Professor Dr. Muhammad Ataul Karim, Executive Vice Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth (USA) was present as the Special Guest. The panel of speakers included reputed personalities like Mr. Kazi Rafiqul Alam, President of the DAM; Professor Dr. AMM Safiullah, Vice Chancellor of the AUST; Professor Dr. Kazi Shariful Alam, Treasurer of the AUST; and Dr. Rashed Nizam, President of the NABIC. They were hopeful about the prospect of the Center and expressed their appreciation for the project.
The event was opened by the welcoming speech from Mr. Kazi Ali Reza, CEO of the Center, who stressed the need of a shift in our current mindset to overcome the severe moral crisis. “This project will inspire the country’s youth to nurture ethical and humanitarian values crucial to becoming better human beings and citizens,” he said. Mr. Reza then went on to moderate the event.
One of the first speakers was journalist Chinmay Mutsuddi. In his speech, he highlighted the significance of an organization like the CEE. It was followed by Md. Anisul Kabir (Jasir), Secretary of the DAM (USA) and Md. Saifuzzaman (Rana), Program Coordinator of the CEE, who introduced the audience to the findings of the previous workshops. They also laid out how the program would play a role in promoting moral and ethical values to different groups of people, especially the country’s youth.
The concluding remarks were presented by the Center’s Director and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Professor Dr. Mizanur Rahman.
Note
- You can visit our gallery page to see more pictures from the launching event.
- You can take a look at the media coverage of the event here.