The Australian High Commissioner on Wednesday celebrated completion of “Great Aussie Rickshaw Ride”, a unique idea to raise awareness about global poverty and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through riding rickshaw across Australia.
Four rickshawpullers from Bangladesh — Hazrat Ali, Abdul Khaleq, Farida Yasmin and Parveen Akhter — stayed 10 weeks in Australia from mid July to late September.
They visited five states and pulled rickshaws about 2000 kilometres, from North of Brisbane to Evandale in Tasmania.
Along the way, 200 Australians got involved in the programme and pulled rickshaw to spread the key message of MDGs, that is, alleviating global poverty is achievable through people-powered change.
Symbiosis International, an Australian-based development organisation working in Bangladesh, organised the programme, hosted by the High Commissioner at his residence in Gulshan in the city.
At the function, Hazrat Ali explained how he tried to highlight the importance of MDGs and how Bangladesh is working to achieve the goals.
Speaking on the occasion, Australian High Commissioner Dr Justin Lee said “Great Aussie Rickshaw Ride” was a great example of community initiative to trigger people-powered change.
He congratulated Symbiosis International for organising the rickshaw journey and lauded the event for building community understanding.
A number of government officials, representatives from development partner organisations, NGOs, members of diplomatic community and Australian expatriates attended the function, which concluded with a musical show.
