EU Envoy Charles Whitley, UNHCR Rep. Ivo Freijsen visit BPKS

EU Ambassador to Bangladesh Charles Witley (seccond from right) and IVO Freijsen, UNHCR Representative in Bangladesh (second from left) with Abdus Sattar Dulal, Executive Director, BPKS on Monday.

Charles Whiteley, Head of the Delegation of the European Union in Bangladesh and Ivo Freijsen, Representative of UNHCR in Bangladesh on Monday paid a visit to the Bangladesh Pratibandhi Kalyan Somity (BPKS) at Dakhsin Khan of the Capital.

Abdus Sattar Dulal, Founder and Executive Director of BPKS warmly received them at the BPKS complex and made a presentation on the Somity since its inception in 1982. He narrated how a small organisation houses in a small tin-shed 45 years ago now heads as many as 2000 grass-roots organisations of disables people all over Bangladesh and is playing an active role in the realisation of the rights of disabled people in Bangladesh and the world at large.

Himself the current president of Disabled Peoples International (DPI), and disability rights champion of the UNESCAP, Abdus Sattar Dulal said disables people like all other citizens paid tax but were deprived of their rights in terms to accessibility to civic amenities, representation in government jobs, businesses and other spheres of life.

He informed them that the present government has formed a steering committee headed by the Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to address the access issue and other rights of disabled people of Bangladesh and expressed the optimism that positive initiatives are expected soon.

Charles Whitley and Ivo Freijsen were accompanied by their spouses. ABI Abdullah ex-secretary to the government, Mostafa Kamal Majumder, ex-editor of The New Nation, presently editing GreenWatch Newsmagazine and GreenWatch Dhaka online news portal were also present.