Listen to Taufiqur Rahman Khan to learn from our history. In this episode of My MARS mantra podcast, you will learn how to define ourselves as a Bangladeshi Global Citizen, where did our Bengali identity start, what does an independent Bangladesh mean to us and for our future generations. Taufique, a practicing architect, was motivated by the July 2024 Revolution of Bangladesh, to launch his own YouTube channel RoudroRekha. This channel represents oral history of Bangladesh. Taufique was inspired from many authors, poets and global philosophers, and is keen to spread the history of our sub-continent for the future generation of Bangladesh.

My MARS mantra invites Rafia Safa, to celebrate the achievement of July Revolution 2024 in Bangladesh and helps us to understand how people are responding the devastating floods at local level. Rafia is a writer and a business graduate from Chittagong University. Rafia was inspired by her mother’s unfulfilled dreams, to be a liberated writer, and be free like a bird and help others to achieve their dreams.

Producer: Zahid Sumon,

Music: ⁠এসেইস-Aseis⁠

আমার মঙ্গল মন্ত্রের এই পর্বে আমরা রাফিয়া সাফা, একজন সোচ্চার নতুন প্রজন্মের তরুণীর সাহসের গল্প শুনবো। রাফিয়া সবসময় তার দেশের মানুষের অধিকার নিয়ে সোচ্চার থাকতে চায়, হতে চায় এক সহনশীল মায়ের কোল থেকে উঠে আসা সেই মেয়েটি যার আছে অসীম সাহস। এই সাহস বুকে নিয়ে সে লিখে যাবে ও কথা বলে যাবে অবিরত। আসুন আমরা রাফিয়ার কাছ থেকে, বাংলাদেশে ঘটে যাওয়া ২০২৪ এর জুলাই বিপ্লব বা আন্দোলনের এবং পরবর্তীতে বন্যা মোকাবিলার গল্প শুনি!

Listen to Samira Haider's unique journey transitioning from the corporate world to the humanitarian sector. She discusses the challenges and rewards of leaving successful careers in the private sector to make a meaningful impact through humanitarian and development work. Shamira's insights offer valuable lessons on navigating career shifts, finding purpose, and contributing to global development efforts.

Shamira grew up in Bangladesh during the independence war, witnessing her neighbour Rumi sacrificing his life for the country, and her dad, volunteering for the Red Cross. She was trained as an architect in Bangladesh and now works in the humanitarian sector worldwide. Shamira also warns us to be more prepared for future disasters like the earthquake, that will be impacting us too. Shamira calls us all to join force from all sectors to make a difference to this world by being brave and bold.

Producer: Zahid Sumon

Launch and promotion: Tasnim Latif and Rafia Safa Shayama

Music: এসেইস-Aseis

Bijay Kumar is a strong advocate of shifting power from the international system to community-led capacities.
Bijay is from Odisha, one of the mineral rich as well as the most disaster-prone regions in India. From his younger years, Bijay was exposed to social inequalities and discrimination. During his childhood, Bijay used to join his civil servant father, vising the tribal communities exploited by the mining industries. After the end of his higher studies in the UK, Bijay was fortunate to receive a sponsorship to visit 14 African countries in 6 years. This experience strengthened his faith in humanity and the power of local wisdom. Bijay’s foundation work in humanitarianism started during the Odisha Super Cyclone 1999. Since then, Bijay has been leading and managing civil society organisations and networks across Africa, Europe, South Asia & Southeast Asia

Katherine is motivated to improve international development projects by capturing hard-learned lessons, to keep the sector relevant in an ever-changing global context. The challenge of working in fast-paced environments helps her to thrive as part of a team working toward a common goal. Katherine is a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist who lived and worked in Belgium, France, Peru, Ethiopia, Pakistan, the Caribbeans and the U.K., with shorter country missions to Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Kosovo, Mozambique and Tanzania. Katherine is also a qualified yoga instructor and have led weekly mindfulness and guided meditation sessions for colleagues at work.

Yasmin, Saquib and Sonia are proud community architects changing the lives of thousands of slum dwellers in Bangladesh. They have amplified the voices of the marginalised poor people in city planning and policy-making.

These young architects were inspired by the vision of Professor Yunus, to see a poverty-free Bangladesh. Their vision is to build a slum-free Bangladesh. And they are already working towards achieving this vision, by working in the slums of Bangladeshi on 'participatory housing, settlement and infrastructure planning.

Yasmin Ara is an architect, academic and development practitioner specialised in housing policies. She teaches on Housing and Development at BRAC University, and did her PhD from Lancaster University, UK, on low-income settlement policies in Bangladesh and India.

Nazmus Saquib is an architect, specialised in sustainable housing, infrastructure and urban design. He has led large-scale community-led infrastructure upgrading projects for the the Government and non-government agencies.

Sharmin Sonia is a climate resilient housing practitioner. She has worked with the United Nations and National Housing Authority on land tenure issues and participatory planning. She is now researching on climate adaptive housing in coastal Bangladesh.

বাংলাদেশে কোটা সংস্কার আন্দোলনে অংশগ্রহণকারী ছাত্রছাত্রীদের উপর পুলিশের তীব্র সহিংসতার আমরা তীব্রভাবে নিন্দা জানাই I সরকার কর্তৃক আরোপিত দেশব্যাপী যোগাযোগ মাধ্যম বন্ধের ও আমরা নিন্দা জানাই I আমাদের মঙ্গল মন্ত্র হলো, আমরা একটি গণতান্ত্রিক দেশ দাবি করি যেখানে প্রতিটি নাগরিকের নিরাপত্তা নিশ্চিত করা যায় I

Professor Nabeel Hamdi is a pioneering architect, introducing participatory action planning and development agenda in designing our cities. This episode showcases how built environment practitioners can play a ‘developmental’ role in placemaking. Nabeel was born in Afghanistan and is of Iraqi origin. He started his school in the UK and was trained as an architect at the Architectural Association in London. Nabeel then worked for Greater London Council on social housing, applying participatory design process, that enabled homeowners to actively negotiate their needs to the local authorities. He then taught in many architectural schools worldwide including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Oxford Brookes University. Nabeel was influenced by 3 architects - John Habraken, Colin Ward and John Turner, who shaped his approach to development practice.

Nabeel has written many influential books, such as Housing Without Houses (IT Publications, 1995), The Placemaker's Guide to Building Community (Earthscan, 2010), Small Change (Earthscan, 2004), co-author of Making Micro Plans (IT Publications, 1988) and Action Planning for Cities (John Wiley and Sons, 1997), and edited the collected volumes Educating for Real (IT Publications, 1996) and Urban Futures (IT Publications, 2005).

Nabeel also won the prestigious UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour for his work on Community Action Planning.

Nabeel MARS mantra is ‘providing’, ‘enabling’, ‘adapting’ and ‘sustaining’ (P.E.A.S), suggesting these four inter-related sets of responsibility intrinsic to the art of practice in development.