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Mukto-Mona urges the CTG chief advisor, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, to save the honor of CRP & its founder Ms Valerie Taylor! 02 June 2007
It is with deep regret and anguish that we have been observing recently, how a tiny circle of people with a vested interest could easily ruin the reputation and fame of a humanitarian institute in a disgraceful fashion. The victims in this case are the CRP (Center for Rehabilitation of Paralyzed)--a non-profit institute long known for its humanitarian service to the poor and socially neglected class of people in Bangladesh--and Ms Valerie A. Taylor, the very founder of the CRP whom the coterie [led by former bureaucrat CM Shafi Sami] had removed from the position of 'coordinator' under the pretext 'she [Ms Valerie] is not skilled in administrative work.' That the person who founded the institute single handedly from scratch does not have administrative knowledge is a ridiculous allegation, to say the least. One may wonder, where this bureaucrat gentleman (?) and his adept administrative associates were when Ms Taylor had been serving this country and its people almost single handedly? Ms Valerie first came to this country in 1969 from England as a physiotherapist but went back; later she came in �72 to a war-torn Bangladesh to help the wounded freedom fighters and poor people and has been there ever since. In 1998 the Awami League government gave her honorary citizenship. It was years of hard work, personal sacrifice and going door to door for donations that made CRP the institute it is today. Everything was going smoothly and people were receiving treatment at low or no cost at all. Things started changing when in 2005, CM Shafi Sami, former bureaucrat and adviser of the interim government, was appointed to the CRP as executive officer and managing trustee (a position known to have been created exclusively to his advantage). For the two positions, Mr Sami has been drawing salary at a rate of taka 243,000 per month where the very founder Ms Taylor had been content with a mere salary of taka 7500 per month. It was when Ms Taylor raised objections against a member of the CRP's staff taking so much salary that Shafi Sami, joining hands with others, started a conspiracy to remove Ms Taylor from her position under the pretexts she doesn�t understand administrative work, CRP needs to raise its fees, etc. �I feel so saddened when I see a poor person sell his/her cow to cover the treatment cost at the CRP�, said Ms Taylor in an interview with prominent Bangla weekly 2000. When a person of foreign origin is fighting so hard for the rights of the treatment of the poor in our country, a few of our own citizens are trying to block it. What could be more disgraceful than this? Of course, Ms Valerie, usually a humble and quiet lady, is not raising any of these questions herself but a responsible Bangladeshi must, since this incident, if left un-protested, would set a negative precedent about how we reward a humanitarian. Moreover, Ms Valerie Taylor is now one of our own people. That said, we, on behalf of Mukto-Mona editorial & advisory board and all of our members, urge the chief of current care taker government, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed for urgent intervention. In this context, we�d like to put forward a few suggestions (a few of which are taken from the post of Ms Rosaline Costa, one of the regular contributors at www.mukto-mona.com): 1. Restore Ms Valerie Taylor to her previous position(s) with all due honor. Turn CRP into a completely non-profit organization as it was always known.
2. Remove the current chairman of the CRP trustee board (CM Shafi Sami) from his position. Recover all the three 6-storied buildings that he built and rented to foreign visitors at high rent.
3. Recover all the money he spent to train himself, his wife to become the superintendent of the Nursing School and his daughter in London with the CRP fund.
4. Form an ad-hoc committee with people who do not have any interest but to save the CRP for the benefit of the common people.
5. Stop all grants that are being spent for the Mirpur CRP-2 centre where the main businessmen, the associates of the main culprit are benefiting from the poor people as well as from CRP. Sincerely, Mukto-Mona Editorial & Advisory Board
www.mukto-mona.com
1.Sign the online
petition below:
http://groups.
References: Weekly 2000 (May 25, 2007) |
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