DHAKA: The 25th death anniversary of the national professor Dr Mohammad Ibrahim, also founder of Diabetic Association of Bangladesh (DAB), is being observed on Saturday in a befitting manner.
DAB has chalked out an elaborate program to commemorate this great man and his works in the city.
Born in Murshidabad, India on 1911, Ibrahim spent the major part of his life in the Government Health Services in different key positions after getting the MB degree in 1938 and becoming MRCP in 1949.
He was made an FCCP in 1950. Ibrahim also worked as Chairman of the Medical Research Council and Chairman of the Council of Scientific Research in Pakistan. He was the founder of the Diabetic Association in Dhaka (1956) and in Karachi and Lahore, West Pakistan (1964).
He, along with a group of social workers, established the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh (DAB) in 1956 and in 1957 set up an out-patients clinic at Segun Bagicha, Dhaka, for the diabetics.
He succeeded in establishing the diabetes health-care and research institute complex, named the Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders (BIRDEM) at Shahbagh in the city, in 1980 where the out-patients centre of the Bangladesh Diabetic Association was shifted.
The institute was named the Ibrahim Memorial Diabetes Centre, after his death in 1989. In recognition of innovative, extensive and high quality services at BIRDEM, it was designated in 1982 as a ‘WHO-Collaborating Centre for Developing Community-oriented Programmes for Prevention and Control of Diabetes’. It is the first such centre in Asia.
Ibrahim also keen to interest in family planning. His involvement began as a founder member of the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh, which first started its program in this country in the mid-fifties.
He made his real impact as the Adviser to the President, with the rank of Minister, in-charge of the Ministry of Health and Population Control, in the mid-1970. He was instrumental in formulating the population control policy of the Government for the first time and introduced the National Population Council.
In recognition of his dedicated, innovative, and outstanding contributions in the health and social sectors, Ibrahim received numerous prizes, medals and honor from different organisations. Some of such awards are Swadhinata Padak (1979), Begum Zebunnesa and Kazi Mahbubullah Trust award (1981), Mahbub Ali Khan Memorial Trust award (1985), Comilla Foundation award, Comilla (1986), Khan Bahadur Ahsanullah Memorial Trust awards, Ahsania Mission award, Dhaka (1989); and Islamic foundation Bangladesh award (1989). Ibrahim was Founder Fellow, Islamic Academy of Sciences, Amman, Jordan (1986) and a Fellow at Bangla Academy (1985).
Mohammad Ibrahim died in Dhaka in 1989.
BDST: 0945 HRS, SEP 06, 2014
