Bank Officer’s Housing Society (BOHS) recently received a memento from the Media Journalist Forum of Bangladesh (MIJAF) for outstanding contribution in community led housing in Bangladesh.
Minister for Liberation War Affairs AKM Mozammel Haque handed over the award to Safiqul Islam Milton, founder & CEO of Bank Officers Housing Society (BOHS).
BOHS has been playing a pioneering role in the development of community-led housing concepts in Bangladesh since 2013 so that even people with limited incomes can dream of building their own houses to live in with the minimum cost possible.
Safiqul Islam Milton said: "The attempts made by BOHS over the years to bolster a revolution of affordable housing in Bangladesh are now respected, and we are inspired by this memento. BOHS will continue its good deeds to help everyone on this vastly populated land fulfill their dream of building their homes."
He also added that community-led housing is now a well-known agenda in today’s world, which intends to ensure housing facilities for people of all classes and backgrounds with the blessing of public-private ventures. The idea is now a tested and successful one, considering the housing movements of the last century.
However, Bangladesh hasn’t been witnessing the expected engagement in community-led housing, though the socio-economic state of the country indicates a promising future if the idea can be implemented wisely.
Already, some projects have been completed successfully by BOHS, and it’s now clear that if the ideas of community housing can be materialized properly, the cost of building a house can be reduced by 50% to 60%.
Although the houses built by the community are more sustainable as the building codes are strictly maintained, BOHS believes that social awareness is a must for a breakthrough when the people of this country have many bad experiences in the case of partnerships, causing a phobia towards joint ventures.
They have to be convinced that there are fewer risks in community-led housing, as an expert authority always monitors everything here, and greater things are possible only with combined efforts.
Safiqul Islam Milton said that hopefully in the near future, to get rid of the housing crisis in Bangladesh, community-led housing will be the biggest solution, and the common people will engage themselves in this movement willingly.
