[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Bangladesh has completed its local registration in Bangladesh

Dear All, It gives me great pleasure to announce that Wikimedia Bangladesh (WMBD) has successfully completed its local registration in Bangladesh. Our application for registration was approved by the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies & Firms - Bangladesh on 9th June, 2014 and I have collected the certificate of registration today (10th June, 2014). Wikimedia Bangladesh has been registered under the Societies Registration Act of Bangladesh & our official name is Wikimedia Bangladesh Foundation. The registration process was a very long and demanding one, but our perseverance and determination finally prevailed. It has become very difficult to get registration of a society/foundation in Bangladesh as the incumbents have to have security clearance from the National Security Intelligence (NSI) of Bangladesh, which is very difficult to get if not impossible. In the course of dealing with the registration process of WMBD, I learned that less than 5 applications for registration as societies get approved out of every 100. We submitted our application in May 2012 and it took us a little over two years to get the security clearance from NSI & complete all the bureaucratic process! It gives us a great sense of achievement that we could uphold the Wikimedia movement volunteerism spirit with passion, integrity and professionalism despite being a small volunteer community. The pending registration issue could not hold us from doing outreach activities locally & taking in the greater Wikimedia Movement. We organized some excellent programs, workshops & meet-ups with our limited resources during this time period. This effort successfully brought in good number of new contributors to Bengali Wikipedia & increased the article count. Volunteers from WMBD/Bangladesh are also actively participating in the international Wikimedia movement by taking part in discussions, conferences & as committee members in different Wikimedia committees. We, as a chapter, want to make small but steady steps towards sustainable progress in fostering the Wikimedia movement in Bangladesh so that we can make the sum of all human knowledge accessible to the people of this region. Cheers Ali Haidar Khan (tOnmOy) Treasurer Wikimedia Bangladesh "ভাবুনতো এমন এক পৃথিবীর কথা, যেখানে প্রতিটি মানুষ সমস্ত জ্ঞান বাধাহীন ভাবে আদান প্রদান করতে পারবে। এটাই আমাদের অঙ্গীকার।"