NABILA IDRIS

Nabila Idris

Recently 10,000 pages of 36 essential textbooks of seven departments of Dhaka University have been converted into digital format for visually impaired students. Now these blind students no longer have to use expensive, time-consuming, bulky Braille books. If they install a copy of one of these 36 books in their computer, the computer will read out the book for them.
Meet Nabila Idris, the mentor of these Actioneers and the founding President of youth organization CommunityAction (CA), which has been doing similarly amazing work from 2008. On December 16, 2008, the first group of Actioneers of Community Action started their journey. Their first activity was to celebrate Victory Day with a group of young students teaching them about our country's struggle for liberation.
Since then, the CA has engaged over 700 students in various community service activities. Some of their endeavours have changed lives by strengthening livelihood options for poor families. One such activity, Action: Stand Up, run entirely with zakah funds, through which activists of CA help destitute families to become self-sufficient. What sets CA apart is that Nabila and the Actioneers first ask what their recipients want to do and then assist them to make their dreams come true.

CommunityAction is ensuring livelihood for thousands of destitute people.

Md Shahin Alam, previously a night guard, has six dependants, one of whom is his invalid sister. After an extensive planning with the Actioneers of CA, he decided to relocate to his village and open a small shop there. The CA provided interest-free seed money from its zakah fund to Alam, which he supplemented with a small investment from his own end. With regular follow up and counselling from the Actioneers, now Alam's shop is running well. Previously, he had never thought of saving money. But taking the Actioneer's advice, he started saving money daily and with that savings he has bought a goat. He has since graduated out of his previous poverty level, and now enjoys a steady income from his own business.
Nabila Idris is currently also working as a Sr. Officer in Research, Policy and Practice at Save the Children.