DHAKA: Mujibur Rahman, who owns Fakenham Tandoori restaurant, is trying to raise £100,000 aiming to build a concrete bridge to connect the villages of Konaraibazar and Khaighatbazar in rural north east Bangladesh.
People risk their lives daily crossing the Basia River on a cobbled-together bridge of bamboo sticks.
Mujibur, known in Fakenham as Diego, was inspired to take up the project after his grandmother died, in her 90s, last year because a doctor could not risk crossing the bridge one night at around midnight when she fell ill.
He said a secure bridge would greatly improve the daily lives of thousands of people.
It would help children get to school safely, sick people get easier access to medicines and doctors and boost the local economy and create jobs.
Now Mujibur, 41, who was born in Bangladesh but has spent most of his life in the UK, is asking for help from the people of Fakenham and the surrounding area.
He is running a competition in his restaurant with a prize of a meal for four, including a leg of lamb and Champagne, worth approximately £100.
To enter, people need to go into Fakenham Tandoori, on Holt Road, pay £10 and write down their name, address and contact number.
The competition is now open and the winner will be drawn, at random, on November 10 and contacted by the restaurant.
All of the money received from entries will go towards the bridge project.
Mujibur, who is a Fakenham town councillor, said: “I thought this competition would be a good way of involving local people here in Fakenham in this project which will have a major impact on the lives of thousands of people.
“It’s going to take time but I believe, if we all work together, we can do it.”
Mujibur, who carried the Olympic torch through Fakenham last year, is also offering to do odd jobs for people in exchange for donations towards the bridge,
He said: “I’ve done some landscape gardening work already and I’m willing to do any jobs people would like doing for them.”
Source: edp24.co.uk
BDST: 1243 HRS, OCT 08, 2013
SR/RS/BSK
