A Brief Look into “Give”

There are roughly 160 million people living in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, nearly one-third (31.5% )of them are living under the national poverty line. Because of this, the country’s population has gone beyond its capacity which

is taking a toll on the life of its people.

This is evident in the sea of commuters rushing to work or the devotees outside mosques after prayers. Most of all, this sad truth is visible in and around hospitals in Bangladesh.

People living under the poverty line have just enough to get by living day-to-day. More so, affording proper healthcare is nearly impossible for them. Covering 31.5% of the population is apparently a Herculean task for public healthcare infrastructures. Data from the Bangladesh Health System Review shows that there is only one bed in a hospital for every 1,699 people.

This is where Give comes in. It is a startup that provides an online platform that allows the ‘many’ to connect to the ‘few’. With a strict vetting process, thorough verification, and working with trustworthy names to identify those in need, Give will allow people to act on their kindness, and help a fellow human being.

With a philosophy to unite people across wealth disparities, Give will spread inclusion, and make healthcare more accessible for the people of Bangladesh through micro-donations. We uncover more about Give from one their founders, Tajwar Hoque.

Tajwar Hoque explains how Give works

What challenges did you have to come across?

There are so many challenges we continue to face. Getting people to give, is not at all easy even if they are micro-amounts. Handling and collecting payments is another problematic area. We really need some assistance from bKash being the largest mobile payment solution in the country. Hopefully, they can accommodate us in the future. Up until recently, our team was also very small, and it has been very challenging doing all the work with just 3 people. But things are taking shape nicely, especially since we’re getting more people involved!

How did you overcome them?

We are still overcoming them! Our fortes are our creative work, our capacity to think outside the box when strategizing, and our unyielding attitude. It usually took a combination of those traits to overcome the challenges we faced thus far. We know that trying to cultivate a new attitude of giving in people was never going to be easy. But every case we successfully complete bolsters our motivation to keep pushing forward!

Give staff doing regular visit to hospitals

What is your long term goal and mission?

Our long term goal is to help as many people as we can. There’s an ever increasing gap between the rich and the poor in the world. It is especially striking in countries like Bangladesh. We want to bridge this gap. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have a seamless, friendly, wealth redistribution system like Give that came out of the era of Digital Bangladesh? How wonderful would it be if that wealth redistribution directly leads to many women or children’s healthcare becoming affordable?

The world will become such a better place. That is our goal.