Brief report on Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Purbachal, held on Sunday 29 January 2023

LUTON, U.K. - Feb. 2, 2023 - PRLog -- At a lively and well attended Zoom meeting, the following Officers and Members of the Executive Committee (EC) of Purbachal-the eastern sky were elected until the next AGM:

Dr Nazia Khanum OBE DL (Chair), Shahnaz Saad (Vice Chair), Moazzem Hussain (Vice Chair), Dr Anwarul Haque (General Secretary), A Hadi Faisal (Joint General Secretary), Mominur Murad (Treasurer), Shafinaz Payne (Joint Treasurer);  Majuba Khan (Social & Cultural Secretary), Sultana Ferdoushi (Joint Social & Cultural Secretary), Zeenat Mannan (Membership Secretary), Zia Khan (Joint Membership Secretary), Mehedy Kabir (Publicity & Promotions Secretary), Sundar Naz Ali (Joint Publicity & Promotions Secretary), Fatema Islam (EC Member), M Farid Ahmed (EC Member), Sadiqur Rahman(EC Member) and Shajon Islam (EC Member).

Apologies were received from Tahir Khan, Urmila Afroz and Shafinaz Payne.

Dr David Cheesman was the Presiding Officer at the AGM. He reminded the Members present about the importance of setting up and adhering to appropriate rules and regulations to ensure high standards of behaviour at all levels in society and praised Purbachal for having proper policies and procedures. He read out the names of nominees, nominators and seconders of various posts and due to the absence of any contest, declared them all as duly elected.  He was warmly thanked by the members.

The AGM received interesting and nostalgic reports from the Chair and the Secretary about Purbachal-the eastern-sky's genesis, development, diverse activities and events and partnerships with different organisations and institutions. There was no established Bangladeshi cultural organisation in Luton before Purbachal. Its main objectives were to enhance the knowledge, confidence, and pride among Bangladeshis, especially their younger generations about their rich culture and heritage, and to create a good understanding of Bangladeshi culture and heritage among other communities in Luton to promote community cohesion.

Purbachal's programmes included the production of many unique events which presented key aspects of Bangladeshi history, culture and heritage. The events mentioned included the first Bengali programme in Luton for Radio Ramadan in 1997 that created the nucleus of Purbachal being established in 1998 - rapidly  blossoming into many celebrations including that of the International Mother Language Day with the participation of multicultural communities for the first time in the UK. In 1922, Purbachal launched and participated over 9 important events to promote Bangladeshi culture, history and heritage.

Please visit https://www.purbachaluk.org/ to read the full report and find out more about this organisation.