The Origins of Gono Unnayan Prochesta and Quaker Service Bangladesh 1972-1973
Following diplomatic contacts in London with Quakers in December 1971, Justice Abu Sayeed
Chowdhury invited the international Society of Friends (known as the Quakers) to work in Bangladesh
on post-war reconstruction and development. His knowledge of this spiritual group arose when he was a
law student in London and attended meetings on international affairs at the Society of Friends House.
Justice Chowdhury eventually became President of Bangladesh in 1972 and 1973, and later was also
Minister of Foreign Affairs.

A new organization called Quaker Service Bangladesh was registered with
the new government in February 1972, and two field co-directors Ataur Rahman and Bob Anderson
came to Madaripur that month to review the possibilities of work on malnutrition, new housing, new
crops, market and bridge rebuilding, and literacy. Although neither Rahman nor Anderson were
Quakers, their work in Rajoir was supported by finances from Quakers in Australia, Canada, United
Kingdom, and United States; when GUP was formed in 1973-74 that Quaker support (called “Friends
Service Committees)” continued. Quaker Service and GUP received major support from UN agencies
(like Unicef) and bilateral donor agencies.
It had always been the plan of Quaker Service Bangladesh to encourage the formation of a new
Bangladeshi-led organization to carry on and enlarge the original work in Rajoir and Madaripur in 1972-73

That is how Ataur Rahman, with the advice of members of the Board, Jehan and Joey Volkmar, and
Bob Anderson, formed Gono Unnayan Prochesta. Ataur Rahman particularly wanted to stress ‘efforts’
(prochesta) so that everyone in Bangladesh and abroad would understand that success was not a matter
of a good plan alone, and that GUP had to adopt an experimental trail-and-error approach. He was tired
of the over-use of the word plan.

In 1973 Rahman and Anderson learned through research that Quaker Service Bangladesh was not new
in Bengal. Members of the Society of Friends (mostly British citizens) had driven ambulances between
Chittagong and Teknaf during the Japanese War (1942-1945), and had participated in relief activities at
Barisal for children during the Bengal Famine of 1943-44. Similar activities continued after independence
in 1947, with a local Board of Directors. So in 1973-74 Gono Unnayan Prochesta was building on a long
history of commitment to equitable and sustainable rural development, most of it based on voluntary
effort. Some members of the Quaker Service Board accepted an appointment on the new GUP Board. All
the staff of Quaker Service, including Ataur Rahman and Bob Anderson, received a cost-of-living
allowance, not a salary.

It was decided that GUP would not be limited to activities begun in 1972, nor limited to the area around
Madaripur and Rajoir. Therefore when a new legal aid initiative started in Madaripur in 1974-75, with a
focus on women’s legal rights, GUP decided it would align itself with that organization too. Thus the
Madaripur Legal Aid Association was born, led by lawyer Fazlul Huq. That association became the model
for legal aid throughout the country when it was registered in 1978, and continued to cooperate with
GUP, with international encouragement.