I am Syed Mizanur Rahman, though people around me like to call me Raju Ahmed. I was born on the 3rd of February 1970 at a remote village of Tangail, a district of Bangladesh. As a person comes from poverty and crucial socio-culture setup, can realize most of the development issues from my empathetic heart. Issues like poverty, Gender, Health, Governance, Tolerance etc. has been perceived by my life started from childhood. Even then I goes to institutional learning to pronounce number of good things and to drop CV for better work to reduce self-poverty and community as well, because my mother always helps me to feel psychological poverty as major cause of financial poverty. So, I started straggle to reduce psychological and financial poverty together.
While studying Economics at Jahangirnagar University, I developed a deep interest in theatre. I found it curious that despite its immense importance, Economics has remained simply a discipline to be studied and people have little or no exposure to it. On the other hand, getting involved with theatre and theatricality made me aware of a crucial gap between what is taught and what is applied, between intention and motivation in both motivational and institutional learning. When I discovered that theatre enjoys an upper edge in both entertaining and motivating, I started actively participating in theatre, both as an actor, director and event organizer with an intention to discover and associate motivational potential to educate people in issues related to economics and development. Along with staging some classics, I also produced performances on Drugs, Tobacco, HIV/AIDS etc. at the university campus and participated National Radio and Television programs as an enlisted artist. Then I did my second Masters in Drama (Direction) from Rabindra Bharati University, India and Diploma in film direction from National Institute of Film and Fine Arts (NIFFA), India.
On my return, I joined an ad firm as Executive Creative, and later Directorate of Non-formal Education as Audio-Visual Officer. While working there, I developed a strong sense of the importance and potential of electronic media as an effective means for social mobilization and marketing. And also, being a theatre person, I understood that electronic media, if planned wisely, can usefully be used for interaction and advocacy. These and many other jobs with NGOs have helped me develop my experience and perceptions about theatre and its potential as motivating factor, a case not cultivated properly as yet.
In 1999, I along with some dynamic young people established TREE, Theatre for Research Education and Empowerment. Our aim is to fully exploit the potential of theatre to disseminate information, ensure effective penetration, and leave the audience/participants confident enough to be active and empowered to meet their own problems.
Working with TREE team around last 8 years secures an advantage of easily approaching and motivating the audience which not only leaves them informed but also motivated to share and continue with what is learnt. This motivational factor, that is, sharing what is learnt and continuing with development programs or activities are crucial for any successful development initiatives. I have worked especially on HIV/AIDS, Drugs, Tobacco, Sexual abuse, Human Rights, Gender, Women Rights, Dowry, Child and Female Trafficking, Intolerance, Reproductive health, Polio, Child Health, Abortion, Poverty, Good Governance, Urban Care etc along with other social and health issues with the mass including the marginalized communities.
Presently, I am graduated (2006-7) from East Side Institute, NYC-USA on short term group and psychotherapy to ensure socio-economic development finally with proper communication and motivation.
To me when people stop developing, it is because they no longer take part in the kind of performatory life activities that support them to "be a head taller than they are." In environments that expect adults to do only what they already know how to do (as well as environments that demand that we do what we don't know how to do but provide no way to learn it), we are not likely to take risks to perform as other than who we think we are. Instead, we tend to repeat our well-learned patterns and passively play out the roles we have already learned. I am dedicated to helping communities and their people learn to create environments that support performatory life activities -- and the continuous growth that this generates.
I wish to utilize my past for exploring creative future by serving organizations and initiatives that really concerned to be enriched and serve people.
