Philanthropy was an essential part of charitable giving embodied in BCCI President, Mr Agha Hasan Abedi's style of real management. It was much more than just an act of a charitable donation. It was participating in the effort of giving by the employees and the BCCI bank to improve human welfare, and support a variety of social causes, such as education, health and poverty alleviation.
Suffering is not part of the nature of life and yet it is experienced all too frequently. In terms of individual psychology our increasing knowledge of the unseen is enriching all our lives. But the suffering that comes from a lack of material welfare can be hard to overcome. Disease, malnutrition and poor education leave scars in the lives of all of us. They are an affront to civilised life, because they are not necessary. The world is rich enough to banish all such suffering and yet it remains a dominant factor in the lives of two-thirds of the world's population.
At BCCI Mr Agha Hasan Abedi, the President, provided a vision of the fullness of life. He reminded that those who were fortunate, have an important role to play in bringing about a better world. BCCI was instrumental in bringing industry, trade and a degree of material well-being to many parts of the Third World. BCCI could also contribute to the welfare of our fellow men on a personal level.
From 1984, BCCI offered all employees each year an amount equal to three percent of their annual salary to give for any charitable purpose of their individual choice. This amount paid by BCCI was not part of an employee's annual salary.
On this occasion the BCCI President's very sincere request to all employees, the BCC family members, was to "please GIVE when you have captured the heart of 'GIVING: GIVE with it something of yourself; a part of your feelings, a part of your heart, some of your love, all of your humility, and your grateful thanks".
Agha Hasan Abedi’s Vision for the Third World
Under the vision and leadership of Agha Hasan Abedi, BCCI provided financial support for charitable and development initiatives in a number of countries before its abrupt closure. This included the establishment of BCCI Foundations, which used a share of the BCCI’s local profits to support programmes within individual countries, as well as wider international initiatives.
The Third World Foundation for Social and Economic Studies, generally known as the Third World Foundation (TWF), was established in London in 1978. Its funding was provided primarily by BCCI, while the bank also extended financial assistance to international development programmes, including the Global 2000 initiative associated with former United States President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter.
Together, these activities formed part of Abedi’s broader vision of using banking not solely as a commercial enterprise, but also as a means of advancing the social, educational, health and economic development of the Third World and the wider Global South.
There were also many other charitable, educational and development initiatives associated with BCCI for which the surviving records are now incomplete or cannot readily be traced. Following the bank’s closure, substantial quantities of documents and files were taken into the possession of BCCI’s liquidators. As a result, the full scale of some of these activities may no longer be capable of being reconstructed from the documentary material presently available.