MPs given the chance to see how a Peterborough charity are changing lives for the better in Bangladesh

The visit took place between January 20-24 and took in many parts of the South Asian country to showcase the work of the Zi Foundation. The Zi Foundation is a charity based in Peterborough and set up by local businessman Zillur Hussain MBE, who is originally from Bangladesh.

He is supported in raising money by several other local business people and politicians, as well as his daughter Tania Tasmin and Chavdar Zhelev, who owns Turkish-Moroccan restaurant Tavan on Lincoln Road.

The charity fundraises money in the city, which it spends both in the city, offering free meals and support to vulnerable residents, but also in Bangladesh supporting rural communities.

Peterborough MP Paul Bristow and Ipswich MP Tom Hunt, who also works closely with the Bangladeshi community in his constituency, attended the visit and were taken to see the work the Zi Foundation has done to change the lives of people on the remote village of Nogdipur in the north-east of the country.

Over the last eight years, the Zi Foundation has built three schools in the area, which cater for around 900 students. The charity also provides these students with clothes, uniforms, food and books.

The schools have played a vital role in providing education opportunities to both boys and girls in areas of the country that often lack many basic amenities.

The charity is also in the process of creating a new computer centre to give villagers the opportunity to learn vital IT skills to allow them access to jobs and opportunities in Bangladesh’s bigger cities.

The visit, which was attended by several ministers of the Bangladesh government and Samantha Cohen CEO of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council and sponsored by RRM Group, also took in several local hospitals supported by the foundation.

Each month, the Zi Foundation puts on a clinic as a small centre near the capital Dhaka to treat people suffering with cataracts.

The guests were also shown the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazaar to the southeast of the country.

It is estimated that over one million Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since 1990 but the numbers accelerated greatly when the Myanmar army staged a crackdown in 2017. The country of Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingyas living within its borders as citizens. They are instead seen as illegal immigrants and face violence as well as being denied the freedom of education, employment and the right to own land.

Roughly 1.2m million are estimated to live in the Cox’s Bazaar camp.

Peterborough MP Paul Bristow said: “It was great to visit Bangladesh with the Peterborough based charity, the Zi Foundation.

“Many across Peterborough will recall how the Zi Foundation stepped up during the coronavirus pandemic and donated thousands of meals to the vulnerable across our City. The Zi Foundation worked with other organisations and the community to ensure the support got to where it was needed.

“The Zi Foundation, along with other Peterborough based charities including Unite 4 Humanity and the Children of Adam, raise funds for vital life-saving and life-changing projects in Bangladesh.

“I went to see for myself the schools and facilities that have been built in the rural villages of Bangladesh with money raised here in Peterborough.

“One village we visited is where Peterborough entrepreneur Zillur Hussain MBE was born and grew up. He has gone back and given generously, after succeeding in our country.

“Many of the people living there lack the sort of things we all take for granted - like a basic education. Knowing that money raised, through charity, in Peterborough is helping makes me proud of Peterborough.

“I also visited the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazaar. Bangladesh have shown great humanitarian leadership in sheltering the Rohingyas. Seeing these refugee camps really hits home the brutality of the situation. The plight of the Rohingya is a shocking humanitarian disaster.”