Eminence Associates for Social Development (EASD) emerged as a not-for-profit organization with its brand name ‘Eminence’. The CEO of Eminence was a young child in 1976, Mirpur Bangladesh. There was a lack of access to water, and it had to be procured through a water pump, which was then changed to a water lorry once a day. The pain and discomfort of sourcing fresh water remained poignant in his mind, until 2003. That was when Eminence started to formally form as a source to alleviate the hardships of the Bengali people.
While in Rajshahi for medical school, Dr. Shamim Talukder befriended a blue collar rickshaw puller, named Habib. He shared with him his wishes for a better future for Bangladesh. After Eminence became established in Dhaka, Habib left his job to support the dream for Bangladesh’s progress. He worked there for 8 months, pouring his soul into caring for the NGO, from cleaning, to feeding the employees. When he returned home for a vacation in his village. Habib suffered a deadly fall off of a rooftop, and did not return to Dhaka.
Those eight months left an impact on Eminence forever. His kind words, stories, and hopeful outlook is still not forgotten. His dreams inspire us to this day, to make his wishes for progress a reality. We are working at Eminence with the dream to ensure equality and equity among poor and wealthy Bangladeshis. We are also looking forward to creating an environmentally aware and sustainable future.
Philosophy for Development: Knowledge Based Communities, Community Business, Six Basic Needs of Human Life, Integrated Development, Equity Based Justice, Young Leadership, and Environmentally Friendly Action
Based on these philosophies, Eminence derives its seven types of activities we want to pursue.
1. Knowledge Based Communities
Living in a community where the economy decides the ultimate social treatment of a human despite the acknowledgment of knowledge might end up being a community of disorder while threatening the public order with anarchy. The philosophy of a Knowledge-Based Community can contribute to ensuring the recognition of such anarchy that subtly replaced the economy with knowledge. It can be said that a deep dig can only bring the hunger of economic progress or the economy as a general reason for all the chaos happening all over the world. And the answer to Why people crave for economic status in such a way that they do not even think twice to destroy a million lives at once is The Attached Value to it. People are being psychologically and culturally trained to value, to respect, and to let dominate the one or group who are economically sound. Hence, to have the mentioned respect and value, people are trying every possible way, either ethical or unethical, to earn, or to have it. Whereas, a knowledge-based system of the community can give us a balanced U-turn fromsuch a system. No amount of harm can bring us one’s knowledge rather we can have the money by force. Here, the weather of good relationships would be auto-generated to be benefited from a system that treats people on the basis of their knowledge. We imagine a community based on Knowledge where people get the treatment on the basis of their knowledge (from experience, academia, local or inherited) that can be used to the betterment of life or can be utilized to maximize the human potentiality
2. Community Business
A community purpose business enables one to utilize the entrepreneurial ethics and principles to establish and manage a for-profit business that advocates community change in a positive way. We believe, the Community Business should be based on some determined ethics while following the manner of pluralism which can change the entire way a business operates, further creating an actual sense of accountability. A Community Business can bring accessibility, transparency, and a responsive course of action due to the engagement of several shareholders who are also the customers. Community Businesses would generally operate with the purpose of forming value for the community and also generate income, hence some ground Ethics must strictly be followed and be environment friendly.
3. Six Basic Needs of Human Life
The era we are roaming around now is the era of Information Technology where the right information can save us from wasting much of our time and energy, and reduce the malformation in the community. All the communities that have stepped towards even to the minimum success ensured the mass access to the basic information. We believe that in any community, the five basic human rights- 5 human rights- are no longer accelerating the standard of living style or ensuring the safety criteria. A lack of access to information can contribute both to cultural clutter or disorder and self regress. We feel that Information Technology should be included in the basic needs of human life, making the number a total of six. Without being informative about the up to ages ongoings or the upgraded strategy to dealing with things, one can hardly grow the businesses (of any kind) and can become more mature in advancement. Besides, the mismanagement and self-absorbed motive can be restrained with the necessary steps taken by mapping a visual idea of the particular issue, supported by information access that relates to the concern of the people.
4. Integrated Development
In any developing community, development in an integrated way can show speedy impact and faster results while being easily monitored. In the integrated development process, wastage of resources and economic prodigality is highly discouraged. Besides, affliction related to the experience of various services can be minimized and cost-effective. Integrated processes can further ensure transparency as several organizations would share a specific ground, hence could be easily monitored.
5. Equity Based Justice
While the world is busy singing the song of Equality, what we actually need is equity. Although both advocate dialectic and justice, Equality aims for coequal treatment for all regardless of need, while Equity supports the different treatment depending on need. Our differences, in truth, do not divide us; rather it is the inability to recognize those differences- equal access to the opportunity can only lead to success only when the early ground was the same for all. What is sufficient for a family may not be sufficient for another family. For instance, if two families, one with 3 members and another with 5 members, are given 4 apples then the treatment would be equal but the hidden truth is one family has been facilitated more than it requires. We believe that it is Equity that can lead to Equality. Giving everyone the same opportunity would never establish peace rather would further create the inequalities we see today.
6. Young Leadership
“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible, and achieved it, generation after generation”.
By Pearl S. Buck
Leadership is a continual learning process to lead oneself as well as leading others. The young generation is a crucial organ in the body of a developing nation; hence their contribution is something beyond the full stop. When one is set to lead, there comes no other option but to develop a sense of responsibility which fuels the journey of industrious mindset, self-efficacy together with various organizational expertise. When the young generation is being trained during an early stage and given the opportunities to become a part of an organization that involves responsibilities, the probable magical change becomes a must. Universally leadership is defined as “the action of leading a group or an organization, or the ability to do this”. At Eminence, we believe that if nurtured and provided with possibilities, every youth would come up with a contribution. Creating awareness in youth regarding the subject matters that include the development of the nation and ensuring their role in the consultative processes like policy designing are being deemed as significant.
7. Environmentally Friendly Action
The world has bent its knee and crawling around a global village where diseases, pollution, disasters have established their firm roots. In such an alarming circle of time, preserving the earth and the living things should be at the top of our priority list. To make our day-to-day life comfortable and convenient, we are continually harming nature by cutting down trees, exploiting natural resources, omitting smoke from factories; industries; cars, etc. Most of the areas do not have drinkable water due to being extremely unhealthy and the toxic materials from industries contribute here in particular. The over-development process of land and housing or the ultimate urbanization has been accelerating the speed of erosion. The ozone layer is damaged and our beautiful planet is suffocating. We often forget our responsibility to the nature that is keeping it safe and protecting its environment from the claws of damage and disservices. Hence going eco-friendly to protect the environment is something every individual should focus on. We believe the action taken today will have its consequences tomorrow. Environment-friendly action encourages both the action and decisions that are in the interest of saving and protecting the natural world, highlighting the capacity of preserving the environment to support living beings.