Runa Khan

Runa Khan is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur and the founder and executive director of Friendship NGO. Friendship is based on Khan's model of "integrated development," meaning it addresses problems in multiple sectors, including health, education, disaster management and economic development in communities where it is involved, rather than specializing in one of these. Khan won the Rolex Awards for Enterprise in 2006 for work through Friendship to preserve the declining craft of traditional boat building in Bangladesh. In 1996 Khan established Contic as a tourism company which gives tours on traditional wooden boats. Earlier, she wrote text-books for children with the aim of moving away from rote learning, an effort that won her the Ashoka Fellowship in 1994. She is the Country Chair for Bangladesh at Global Dignity. Early life and education Khan was born on November 17, 1958, to an aristocratic family descended from the zamindars or landowners of Bengal. She studied at the Dhaka Preparatory and Farmview International Schools. She went on to study geography at the Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata and did a second BA in humanities from the Eden Mohila College in Dhaka. Runa Khan's grandparents came from a privileged background. Her mother's family was originally from Afghanistan. They were descendants of the Karranis, the last dynasty of the 16th-century Bengal Sultanate. When she was as young as 9, Runa's father, Alim Khan, used to receive Zen monks, Hindu priests, Taizé Brothers and ambassadors for dinner and include her in conversations about music and philosophy. Khan was first married at the age of 20 to one of her direct cousins, and had two children before that marriage ended. Runa Khan wanted to continue her work and studies in geography. But her first husband did not allow her to do that.