Rahimafrooz is a 65 year old family business with a diversified portfolio covering Storage Power (lead acid batteries), Automotive Aftermarket Distribution and Renewable Energy. In every industry Rahimafrooz operates, it does focus on social impacts.

Rahimafrooz believes that the best way to create an impact is to build, support & guide sustainable institutions. Many of the CSR & philanthropic activities of Rahimafrooz & the family are channeled through The Center for Zakat Management (CZM) to ensure effective utilization & sustainability. Also through it’s subsidiary Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy (RRE) it took the challenging initiative of “Solarising Bangladesh” to empower rural communities with the power of electricity. RRE also continues to create a positive environmental impact by eliminating carbon emissions.

Currently, Rahimafrooz Group is contributing in the following areas:

Education

Education
  • RSF Model school and college: In 2008, Rural Services Foundation (RSF) setup a free of cost, residential education centre in Shajahanpur, Bogra for children from severely impoverished families living in the Monga affected areas.
  • Scholarships programs: Students across 62 public universities are beneficiaries of scholarship program for undergraduate & primary education students.

 

Poverty Alleviation

proverty
  • Income Generation support: This program creates employment opportunities, both full time and part time, for its beneficiaries and it’s been very successful in achieving this goal. It includes vocational training and also seed money for beneficiaries to use their developed skill and capacity for financial benefit. The vocational training covers homestead gardening, handicrafts, rearing poultry/animal rearing and other activities.

Health

Health
  • Health Care centers: Primary healthcare centers are established in remote areas to provide treatment and medicines free of cost to the beneficiaries. There is significant reduction of primary diseases, since the beneficiaries become conscious of the basic health issues and get consultation easily.

Green Energy

green energy

RRE has till date achieved the following milestones, with many more innovative solutions in the pipeline:

  • Access to Energy: RRE has till date installed over 700,000 Solar Home System solutions across rural off-grid Bangladesh. Thus, transforming the lifestyle of more than 4.5m people across Bangladesh.
  • Cleantech Appliances: RRE’s range of cleantech appliances cover Solar Clean Cooking Stove, Fans, TVs & Drinking Water Filtration Pump. RRE’s products are being used across 40 districts.
  • Smart Electric Mobility & Solar Charging Stations: RRE is currently piloting the roll-out of electric three-wheelers in rural Bangladesh. There are also solar charging stations that are being set to ensure that the electricity being used to charge the electric vehicles are also zero emissions.
  • Access to Finance: In partnership with Banks, RRE piloted rolling out agent-banking across 100 villages.
  • Smart Entrepreneurship: RRE has created a smartphone application – UDDOM, to mobilize the untapped potential of the rural unserved market. UDDOM harnesses the ‘green entrepreneur’ or the ‘uddokta’ (Bengali for entrepreneur) by motivating and empowering them to create a community or pool of customers. It is an ecosystem that maximizes the entrepreneurial drive by delivering products and services to customers which improve the standard and quality of life for much of Bangladesh’s Population that lives in rural and remote areas, without direct access to energy, clean drinking water, finance and health care.

Apart from this, the Group has always supported many noble initiatives undertaken by various other individuals and organisations. Rahimafrooz has a pioneer role in supporting people distressed by natural calamities and donations to helpless people on health and education ground– all are examples of the socially responsive manner of our business. Rahimafrooz is also a signatory to UN Global Compact. It supports the ten principles of the Global Compact in respect to human rights, labour rights, the protection of the environment and anti-corruption.