The third day of the Dhaka Lit Fest, Saturday, saw the launch of 'Always a Way: 50 Stories of Courage and Hope'. Published by Brac, the book includes 50 inspiring stories of people, whose lives were changed by Brac in various ways.
The launch was held in the afternoon at the Abdul Karim Shahittya Bisharad auditorium of Bangla Academy. The book contains stories of people from home and abroad.
The event began with a performance by Jatrik. They selected eight stories from the book and acted these out in front the audience. The performance included stories of a woman, Afsana, who became a doctor after overcoming all sorts of obstacles with the help of Brac. She now runs a clinic of her own. Then there was the transgender entrepreneur, Cynthia, who worked at Brac's production line and now has her own production house Bhuiyan Fashion. There was Sharbati, an Afghan woman educated at a Brac school, who is now a teacher who works to bring girls to school and educate them. There were more stories that unfolded on stage. The performances were hugely appreciated by the audience present there.
Brac, through its various organisations, has touched the lives of so many people whose stories are told in this book.
Speaking at the event, Brac's executive director Asif Saleh said these are all true stories that they started collecting about a year ago. "These are stories of fighting, surviving and hope. We lost track of people who changed their lives with a little bit of help from Brac, but now we are helping them tell their stories," he said.
"We want to be in the background and let them tell their stories from the front," he added.