Question 1

True or false: Abed won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work with BRAC.

Accepted Answer

False. The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize went to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank. Abed was never a Nobel laureate.

Question 2

True or false: Abed was a professional cricket player before he started his humanitarian work.

Accepted Answer

False. Abed was trained as an accountant and worked for Shell Oil. He never played professional cricket.

Question 3

True or false: Abed was born into a wealthy landowning family in what is now Bangladesh.

Accepted Answer

True. His father was a zamindar (landlord), and Abed studied at Oxford University before returning to help the poor.

Question 4

True or false: Abed originally planned to become a politician and ran for parliament in the 1970s.

Accepted Answer

False. Abed never ran for office. He focused entirely on development and microfinance through BRAC.

Question 5

True or false: Abed founded BRAC, which is now the largest NGO in the world by number of employees.

Accepted Answer

True. BRAC has over 100,000 employees, mostly in Bangladesh, making it bigger than organizations like Oxfam or Save the Children.

Question 6

True or false: Abed’s BRAC pioneered the use of 'doorstep banking' to reach rural women borrowers.

Accepted Answer

False. Doorstep banking was popularized by Grameen Bank. BRAC used village organizations and community health workers instead.

Question 7

True or false: Abed's first major relief effort was during the 1970 Bhola cyclone, before Bangladesh's independence.

Accepted Answer

True. He led relief operations for the cyclone, which killed 500,000 people, and later for the 1971 war refugees.

Question 8

True or false: Abed stepped down as BRAC's chair in 2019, just months before his death.

Accepted Answer

True. He retired as chair in September 2019 and died in December 2019, ensuring a smooth leadership transition.

Fazle Hasan Abed Trivia Questions