LEGO Prize 2018 goes to BRAC founder

The LEGO Foundation has awarded the LEGO Prize 2018 to Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chairperson of BRAC.

Each year, the LEGO Foundation awards the LEGO Prize to a particular organisation that supports learning through play. The 2018 award went to Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chairperson of BRAC, for his extraordinary contribution towards improving children’s lives and their opportunities to play, learn and develop. Thomas Kirk Kristiansen, chairman of the board of LEGO Foundation, presented the award in Denmark. The award comes with a grant of $100,000.

“It is an honour to receive the esteemed LEGO Prize. Every child deserves the opportunity to grow and develop. This generous financial contribution will support the holistic development of an underserved group of children in Bangladesh with special needs,” said Sir Fazle.

“At BRAC, we pride ourselves on taking an innovative approach to early childhood development and education and share the LEGO Foundation’s passion for learning through play. Through our Play Lab programme, we have seen first-hand the power it can have in a child’s development.”

BRAC operated in Bangladesh, Tanzania and Uganda, where the organisation has set up 1,400 early childhood development centres. These are focused on encouraging children to play, providing age appropriate toys and activities. In addition to the development centres, BRAC operates over 20,000 schools in the region.